Brussels, 10/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference on Tuesday, CDU MEP Elmar Brok, President of the EPP-ED group at the European Convention, outlined a "discussion document" on a European Union Constitution penned on the initiative of the EPP Members of the Convention. It does not claim to be a full or final document, he commented, since the EPP group in the Convention is planning to discuss it with the other political groups in order to reach as board a compromise as possible, such as with Andrew Duff (who chairs the Liberal Members and will himself be publishing a draft Constitution on Thursday made up of a preamble and 19 articles, Ed). Brok added that on Thursday, the Social/Social-Democrat Members would also be publishing the broad outlines of their ideas on a future Constitution.
Brok began his introduction by saying that the British ideas reported in the media whereby an EU constitution should simply be a preamble and an introduction would not suffice to meet the Convention's mandate. He was asked about British Tories involvement in the text, to which he replied that like other EPP Members on the Convention, they had been presented the text for their comments, explained Brok laconically. (The text handed to reporters on Tuesday was written in English.)
Brok admitted that the almost 100-page document presented by the EPP Members of the Convention had been drawn up based on the Martens-Schäuble document (to which the EPP's member parties have since tabled many amendments) but would not be discussed in Estoril. Brok said that they wanted to carry out an exercise in transparency with the document and give citizens the change to understand the question of power in the EU as soon as possible, not in a lyric form but by clearly explaining the procedures. Asked about Wilfried Martens' absence (it had been announced that he would be attending the press conference), Brok said that the announcement had been made before they knew the technical arrangements for the return of the President of the European People's Party from Sardinia, where he had been attending a meeting on Monday of the EPP group heads of state at Silvio Berlusconi's villa.
Brok told reporters that the EPP Members had asked Rupert Scholz (highly respected German expert in constitutional law and defence minister under Chancellor Kohl, Ed) to prepare a text, which had then been assessed by a small working group of experts from several Member States. Asked whether the document wasn't too German (i.e. too federal) to win the support of the entire EPP-ED group, Brok replied that they had been inspired by the Lamassoure report on power-sharing and also discussions in the subsidiarity working group chaired by Ingo Mendez de Vigo, adding that as far as he knew, these two colleagues weren't German.
Brok stressed that the draft basically merged the existing treaties into a single text, a "Constitution of the European Union" with 200 articles divided into five sections - Charter of Fundamental Rights, principles of the European Union, organisation of the EU, reinforced cooperation, general and final measures (along with five "constitutional protocols" on the internal market, EMU, CFSP, police and legal cooperation in criminal cases and nuclear safety). He noted that the Charter of Fundamental Rights becomes "EU constitutional law" (in the current version, he explained, noting that only possible changes of language can be considered for the existing text); the EU becomes a single community with the three pillars being replaced by a "simplified structure" and the EU having legal personality; and subsidiarity is at the heart of the chapter on powers (with strengthened political control in which both national and regional parliaments can intervene).
Among the documents "vital innovations", Brok mentioned the following: the Council "shall form the House of States in the Union legislative process", Article 93. Answering questions, Brok explained that "intergovernmental" elements remained since the same article stipulates that without prejudice for the Commission's power, the Council shall coordinate Member States' economic policies, the Common Foreign and Security Policy and police and legal cooperation in criminal cases (the draft document keeps a six-monthly Council Presidency but adds that the Council can unanimously decide to extend this); the Commission becomes the EU's "executive" (Article 102) and will be responsible for the EU's representation abroad.
Its President will be elected by the European Parliament, with their choice confirmed by the Council (the text notes that there will be one Commissioner per Member State, but the number of Commissioners can vary following a unanimous Council decision endorsed by the European Parliament); and changes to the Constitution will be prepared by a constitutional convention (Article 196).
Klaus Hänsch welcomes move from listening phase to actual proposals
German Social Democrat MEP Klaus Hänsch, Member of the Convention's Praesidium, welcomed the presentation of the document, saying it showed that after recent months' listening phase, the Convention was now moving to discuss actual proposals. The results of the working groups would also contribute here, he stressed (he himself chairs the working group on coordinating economic policy). He said a future constitution could incorporate a Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EU's tasks and aims, powers, institutions, decision-making procedures and funding, with a second part covering policies (based on the current Treaties).