Brussels, 12/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday afternoon, the Chairman of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, opened the plenary session of the European Convention (devoted to simplifying EU instruments and procedures on which we shall report tomorrow). He admitted that "between a merged treaty or a two-party treaty", his preference went to "a single text possibly completed with protocols", a text which, in his view, citizens would find more "readable". The Praesidium will sketch out the architecture for the new treaty during the second plenary of the Convention in October (28 and 29 October) and, at the beginning of next year, it would present a "more detailed" proposal, he said. VGE warned that it is necessary to "avoid the risk of a premature text that would come under fire" from those who are "already preparing their weapons" to demolish it. At this point, he recognised the "interest" of individual contributions from "political groups or Convention members" and cited the "very remarkable" paper by Andrew Duff (see page 5) and the "document that Elmar Brok is preparing" (EUROPE of 11 September, p.4). However, he warned, "what a group or a Convention member is able to do" (that is, present proposals even though they may be controversial), the Convention does not have the liberty of doing. (EUROPE has reason to believe that the draft Constitution presented to the press by CDU member Elmar Brok caused a stir among the non-German members of the EPP component at the Convention, who stressed that it is one contribution among many). EUROPE will report further on the plenary session as a whole in tomorrow's bulletin.