Brussels, 01/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Chairman of the Convention on the future of Europe, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, presented the Convention's organigramme and work programme to the media. In his opinion, the Convention should be of the same nature and have the same prestige as an EU institution, albeit temporary.
The President selected Walpurga Speckbacher to head his Cabinet, an Austrian economist. His Cabinet will be made up of Alan Piotrowski and Alessandre Schiavo. Sir John Kerr will be appointed as the Secretary General, with Annalisa Giannella as his deputy. The Convention's spokesperson will be Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut (currently a spokesperson for Germany's Permanent Representation) and a deputy will be appointed in the very near future to take charge of providing information for the general public, as opposed to the media. There will be a dozen or so Convention draftspeople, all Council, Commission or Parliament officials. Nine have already been selected and the remaining three will be announced in the next few days. The Chairman is planning for the organigramme to be finalised by 14 February.
The Convention's first plenary session will be held on 28 February, followed by six plenaries between the end of February and the end of July. The 12-member Praesidium will meet once a fortnight in theory, while the presidency will meet once a week. There will liaison with Member States (visits are already scheduled to London, the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria), and the Chairman will be visiting the United States and Russia. The Chairman will report back to the Barcelona Summit in March on his work, and also to the June Seville Summit and the European Councils after that (see p.3 on Mr Giscard d'Estaing's statements).