Brussels, 24/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The "Congress of the Peoples of Europe" (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.7), suggested by the Chairman of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, is "superfluous", states SPD member Jo Leinen in a press release. In his view, "either such a Congress has no decision-making competence, in which case it is purely a token institution or it does have the power to decide, but that would be at the expense of the role of the European Parliament as legislator and as the democratic body to decide about high-level appointments in the EU". Furthermore, Mr Leinen insisted saying the European Convention must "stipulate in the European Constitution that for any future change or development of this constitution, a new Convention will be called".