Brussels, 27/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - German Social Democrat, Jo Leinen, who is part of the European Constitution Intergroup "Activity Group" at the European Parliament announced to the press on Wednesday that the "Intergroup Constitution" would be part of the Convention on the Future of Europe. The Intergroup will seek to win Member State parliamentarians to its ideas and if that proved successful, government representatives at the Convention too. Mr Leinen has put forward five Intergroup priority objectives that will be submitted to the members of the Convention on Thursday. These are outlined in a press release entitled, "A Constitution for a Democratic European Union".
The demands that the Convention is called on to support include: 1. Producing a single draft of a European Constitution, which will incorporate the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union. Mr Leinen said that there must be a single project, which has a Constitutional remit. 2. Submitting all EU legislation to the co-decision of the European Parliament and the Council and to qualified majority voting within the Council. 3. Transforming the European Commission into a "Government of the Union", which would be democratically legitimised by the election of its President by the newly elected European Parliament. Mr Leinen said that the Convention should decide whether this government would be the Commission or Council. The MEP also emphasised the "symbolic force" that this decision would have and pointed out that the second and third objectives would correspond to the need for more democracy in the Union, thanks to a greater balance between the legitimate sources at both national and European levels. 4. Extending the Community method to all EU policies and endowing the Union with powers over Common Foreign, Security and Defence Policy. 5. Ending the right of veto over procedures for adoption and revision of the European Constitution. Mr Leinen said that they had to find a model whereby a "no" would mean excluding oneself but would not prevent the others from going forward.
Mr Leinen indicated that in every speech President Giscard d'Estaing had mentioned the Convention of Philadelphia and that perhaps even he was in favour of the Convention adopting a text that would include a Constitution.