Brussels, 12/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - The Chairman of the European Convention, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, pointed out in a letter to the President of the European Council, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, that, in his view, it would be "interesting" for the Copenhagen Summit to be "briefed on the content" of the "preliminary draft of the European Union's Constitution, widely and publicly diffused", which was submitted last week by the European Commission President. "The most noticed event in the life of the Convention" was the submittal of this text by Romano Prodi and the Commission's contribution to the Convention, VGE notes in his letter. Furthermore, recalling that the Declaration of Laeken states that the presentation of the report by the Convention Chairman will make it possible to know how the Heads of State and Government feel, he added: "Mr Romano Prodi, seated at the European Council, could perhaps present the proposals. The European Convention will tackle the institutional issues from January on, that is, after the next meeting of the European Council. The fact of knowing the first reactions of the members of the European Council to the Commission's proposals would be very useful for conducting our work in the future".
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who was to report to the Heads of State and Government on the work of the Convention on Thursday evening at 19h00 (the time we go to press), specified in his letter that his own account would no doubt be brief, as, since the Summit of 24 October in Brussels, the work of the Convention has covered "some important issues, but issues that are more of a technical nature": economic governance, Union powers, simplification of procedures and instruments, and completion of the area of freedom, security and justice.