Brussels, 31/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - In an initial expose to the European Convention on the report of his working group on economic governance, Klaus Haensch acknowledged on Monday the need to have a debate in plenary taking more account of the "EU's social dimension" (which is scheduled for the 7 and 8 November plenary: Ed.). Haensch admitted that different concepts of society had arisen within his group, and that the latter had not, therefore, been able to propose significant reforms (see the large summary of the group's final report in EUROPE of 24 October, p.8). Mr. Haensch confirmed that within the group there was consensus or broad agreement on: - maintaining the current distribution of powers regarding economic governance (centralised monetary policy, notably within the ECB, "decentralised economic policies within Member states"); - retention of the independence of the European Central Bank, as well as its structure and mandate; - the need for greater and more effective co-ordination of economic, social and employment policies. However, he had to admit that opinions varied over: - the Commission's right of initiative regarding co-ordinating economic policies; - the introduction of majority voting for Council decisions on a warning given to a Member state for excessive deficit; - extension of qualified majority voting to decisions over tax; - the external representation of the euro zone.