Strasbourg, 03/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The delegation of the European Parliament at the European Convention drew, on 2 July in Strasbourg, the first conclusions so far of the discussions within the first working groups created by the Convention. During the meeting, Inigo Mendez de Vigo (EPP, Spain), who chairs the EP delegation and the working group on subsidiarity, said that the Praesidium agrees the working groups should draft their conclusions in the form of draft articles for a constitutional treaty, and Klaus Hänsch (SPD), who chairs the working group on economic governance, specified that, on this subject, the Praesidium has evolved on its insistence and that, from the autumn on, a sketch of the fundamental treaty could be presented (see above). The different groups will focus their work on:
- subsidiarity. The president of the group, Inigo Mendez de Vigo, noted that some Members (such as the representatives of the British government and the German parliament, Peter Hain and Jürgen Meyer) would be in favour of 'ex-post' political control with the participation of national parliaments, but Portuguese Socialist Luis Marinho recalled that this is not the opinion of the European Parliament.
- national parliaments. The group does not call for the creation of a subsidiarity chamber, said Hanja Maij-Weggen (EPP, NL), who hopes there will be a meeting between this group and that on subsidiarity.
- complementary competences. According to Alain Lamassoure (EPP, France), there was a "dialogue of the deaf" with the president of the group, Henning Christophersen, who did not wish to make concessions on enlarging the debate to the broader issue of sharing powers in general. The EP rapporteur on sharing powers in the EU believes one can hardly tackle the only complementary competences without discussing the matter as a whole, and the work of the group "did not go well".
- legal personality. Johannes Voggenhuber said a certain consensus would take shape within the group towards abolition of the pillar structure.
According to the Austrian Green member, one has the impression that the Convention is a worksite where building material accumulates without knowing what is going to be built, while it will be difficult for the group to present texts without tackling the problem of the structure of the future constitutional treaty.
- Charter of Fundamental Rights. Three different tendencies emerge from the discussions, summarised Reinhard Rack (ÖVP). Inclusion of the Charter in the future Treaty (the contrary would be unthinkable mainly according to MEP Elena Paciotti and French Parliament Representative Robert Badinter), no incorporation of the Charter into the Treaty (which is mainly how the British feel), or improvements to the Charter before including it in the Treaty (the wish mainly expressed by candidate countries).
- Economic governance. The president of the group, Klaus Hänsch, points out that many members of htre group are in favour of a growing reole for the EP and greater consulation of national parliaments in the developemnt of the Broad Economic Policy Guidelines, as well as a bigger role for the Commission in the early warning mechanisms in the context of the Stability Pact.