Brussels, 12/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - "Absolutely necessary" but "not easy to organise" - such are the two comments made by the Chairman of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, on the subject of the listening phase that has just ended with a general policy debate on external and defence policies and the Youth Convention (see other news). Speaking before the press, the Chairman sketched out the work to be done in the future and spoke successively of:
Working groups: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing recalled that six working groups have already initiated the "study phase" that is to be prolonged until the end of the year. He stressed the importance of some of them, for example the working group on subsidiarity (introduced into the Treaty of Maastricht, although the problem of monitoring compliance has still not been settled, he said), the role of the national parliaments (Mr Giscard d'Estaing insisted on the "number effect", noting that the solutions allowing them to be involved are still realistic with six Member States but difficult in practice with 25); or the sharing of powers that should be specific in so far as one wants to set in place an "organisation for the next fifty years" and that, on this chapter, even academic circles remain vague. Four additional working groups have been set in place on: (1) internal security (crossborder, Mr Giscard d'Estaing told journalists) and justice; (2) simplification of the legislative procedure; (3) external relations; and (4) defence. Regarding the last two groups, the Chairman of the Convention recalled that separation had been hoped for by the Praesidium because there is already a real legal base for foreign policy (with some parties which are within the Community system such as trade or development cooperation), whereas defence is fully under the scope of Member States (in link with WEU and NATO). He nonetheless pointed out that the two groups may, if necessary, hold common sessions.
Plenary work: The session on 12 and 13 September will be devoted to simplifying the legislative procedure and that of 3 and 4 October to control of subsidiarity, said Mr Giscard d'Estaing, who recalled that several working groups (subsidiarity, legal personality and Charter) are expected to report in October. He stressed the importance of the group on legal status in so far as the final project will not have the same form depending on whether the Community is allowed to keep going, or not. He said he had a preference for a single legal status. "A first structural draft" of the future constitutional text should be available in the second half of October or early November, he said, explaining that this "architecture" will then allow Convention Members to discuss the content by taking headings, "one at a time".