Following the informal meeting at the Elysée on 14 January, France and Germany announced a joint contribution to the European Convention on the Union's institutional architecture. They make proposals for a "full-time" president of the European Council and on the election of the president of the European Commission by the European Parliament, as well as on a "European Foreign Secretary" (see EUROPE of 16 January, p.5). In their contribution (that we are publishing in full in our EUROPE/Document series, in French and German), Paris and Berlin also make suggestions on national parliaments, proposing an annual debate between them and the European Parliament on the State of the Union, "within the Congress".
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