16/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - During a debate on "My vision for Europe in 2020", organised by Friends of Europe, the chair, Etienne Davignon, former European Commissioner, said that the results secured within the European Convention on the Union's single legal personality were much more important than realised and will have great consequences on the decision-making process. "We don't need a full-time President" (of the European Council), he said, considering, moreover, that the Commission should chair Councils; it's practically already the case when a particularly hardened Commissioner takes part in Council work, he remarked. Convention Vice-President Jean-Luc Dehaene and members of the Convention John Bruton and Elmar Brok were especially questioned about the Union's external action. The former Belgian Prime Minister stressed that the contribution the Union could provide to "global governance", and, asked about EU/Russia relations, he said that he "completely disagreed" with Silvio Berlusconi who recently said that Russia could one day be part of the Union. The former Irish Prime Minister, for his part, considered that the EU should organise a "sort of overall political relationship with Russia under the aegis of the Council of Europe". According to him, we should reshape the pan-European organisation, notably by introducing majority voting in the Committee of Ministers. As for the chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, referring to relations with Washington, he noted that the United States "is the only country in the world with which the Union has a relationship not based on a treaty: we should think about that, he considered.