Brussels, 25/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Praesidium of the European Convention met on Thursday evening, after the speech by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing at the European Council to finalise the very simplified preliminary draft of the constitutional treaty that will be presented to the Convention on Monday. EUROPE has reason to believe that the first draft, that had been the subject of considerable criticism, has been restructured, mainly because it seemed to give the suggestions made by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as approved, although these, such as the establishment of a Congress or long term Council President, are far from having received general assent. The parts of the text on these issues now have a commentary specifying that the Convention has still to give its stance on these aspects. It should be noted that the text mentions the dual nature of the Union that will have a federal nature for competences in common and an intergovernmental nature for areas governed in cooperation between Member States. Regarding competences, the initial text, which seemed to move towards an over rigid catalogue, is said to have been restructured. It will also allow account to be taken of the majority leaning that has come about in favour of including the full text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights in the constitutional part of the future single Treaty (see p.8).