European Governance and the Community Method

Jose-Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, pronounced an openning speech during the closed seminar on the Community Method organised by Notre Europe and the BEPA in Brussels, February 28.

I am pleased to join you today at this event and pleased also that we with BEPA are joining forces for the day with Notre Europe, one of Europe’s foremost think tanks. Notre Europe is renowned for its original thinking on European questions and boasts some distinguished people leading its work. In particular, I pay tribute to the work of Notre Europe’s Founding President, Jacques Delors and your current President, António Vitorino who will address the meeting later today. Both Jacques Delors and António Vitorino continue to give much to the cause of European integration and we are really very grateful for that.

We are here today to consider issues of governance. In particular, the governance of the European Union and the central dynamic within that – the Community method. I know that Notre Europe instituted a debate last year on the future of the Community method and we look forward to hearing some of the findings in the course of the day.

Since the inception of the European Community, there has been a debate on how best to build Europe. Inter-governmentalism has been favoured by some, and the Community method by others. In truth, we have built a genuinely unique sui generis organisation, thanks to a large extent to the Community method. Most of us here today feel pride in the achievement.