Brussels, 28/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs adopted a Parliamentary draft opinion on Wednesday afternoon, with 15 in favour, 3 against and 3 abstentions, on the convening of the Intergovernmental Conference on the EU's institutional reform. Voting on the opinion in plenary will be in Brussels on 3 February.
The Dimitrakopoulos/Leinen Resolution approved in Committee states that "an Intergovernmental Conference is indispensable", but "disputes the too limited agenda decided on in Helsinki that risks placing the integration process back into question, and calls for an open attitude on the part of the Council towards the proposals of the Portuguese Presidency for broadening the Conference's agenda". Noting that the Commission's opinion of 26 January "clearly pleads in favour of a broader agenda" for the IGC, the MEPs call on the Presidency to stick by its commitment to propose subjects at the Lisbon Summit to be included in the Conference's agenda, and to do so while "considering with the greatest attention" its own proposals of 18 November 1999, those of the Commission and those that Member States will make, "so as to allow for an ambitious reform of the Treaty". Parliament, which will define its concrete proposals for the IGC in a later report, considers moreover that Parliament President Nicole Fontaine should be able to take part in the meetings of the European Council at the same level as the Commission, and that its representatives, Elmar Brok and Dimitris Tsatsos, should also be able to participate in the meetings of the IGC at ministerial level.