Brussels, 09/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Virgilio Dastoli, Secretary General of the International European Movement, commented on Friday on information, neither confirmed nor denied in Berlin. During the last Italian-German Summit, Chancellor Schröder is said to have suggested that Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato should chair a "Committee of the Wise" entrusted with drafting the Union's Constitution (Lionel Jospin is said to have backed this proposal).
"Mr Amato is certainly one of the best candidates for contributing to the elaboration of the future Union Constitution, having placed his authority and his competence to the service of the work of the Florence Institute on this theme, and having requested a European Constitution in 2004, with Mr Schröder", said Mr Dastoli. He added, however, that, for the International European Movement, the "drafting of the Constitution must be founded on 'constitutive' powers shared between the national governments, the European Parliament, the national parliaments and the European Commission". Mr Dastoli recalls that the drafting of the Charter of Fundamental Rights "has already allowed the Union to 'discover' the Convention method, which allows these constitutive powers to express themselves on an equal footing" and to overcome the ineffectiveness of diplomatic negotiation and the lack of transparency and democratic legitimacy of the "Committee of the Wise". He concluded that Mr Amata would thus be a very good candidate for the presidency of the future European Union Constitutional Convention.