Brussels, 17/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the Presidium of the European Convention continued its work of drafting articles on the competencies and actions of the Union based on the preliminary draft of the Constitutional treaty presented last October (EUROPE/Documents 2294/2295 dated 31 October 2002) indicated the Convention spokesperson, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut to the press on Friday. The spokesman also gave assurances that this was "primarily a legal exercise" and one of clarification that "was equal before the law". In implicit references to the criticism that the initial drafts of the articles would reduce Community competence and elaborate a list of competencies (rejected by the majority of the Convention: Editor's note), the spokesman insisted that they had asked for clarification on the subject, which also formed part of a "constitutionalisation process" in which they were involved. By carrying out this clarification exercise, the spokesman admitted that they were pushed towards defining the categories of competencies but repeated the fact that defining certain categories did not mean that they were going to draw up a rigid list. He also explained that this definition of categories did not mean that the distribution of competence was going to be changed between that of a Community or national level. Mr Meyer-Landrut pointed out that it would be the Convention that could choose to modify the current distribution (of competence) and have a detailed debate on the subject (it had already made known that it wanted, for example, a debate on Justice and Home Affairs. Mr Meyer-Landrut added that the Praesidium had worked, on the basis of the current legal bases, on the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice and on the Lamassoure report. In answer to questions on the fate of the report in the Christophersen working group on complementary competence (or support actions), the spokesperson recalled that the group had examined a single section of competence.
The fact that the Praesidium had begun by discussing the articles on competence does not mean that it will ignore those on policies, Mr Meyer-Landrut assured, responding to questions on the different approaches between the Praesidium (and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing) and the European Commission's "Penelope" document. Furthermore, he specified that the Praesidium has so far examined Articles 7 to 13 (fundamental principles, control of subsidiarity and proportionality, definition of the categories of powers, exclusive competence, shared competence, areas for support action, CFSP, ESDP, and police and justice policy in the criminal area), and that it has begun to discuss Article 2 on the Union's values. By end January, the Praesidium will have completed the work of drafting Titles I (definition and objectives of the Union), II (citizenship and fundamental rights) and III (powers), Mr Meyer-Landrut confirmed. He recalled that this first series of draft articles will be discussed in plenary early February (a plenary is foreseen on 5 and 6 February), whereas the plenary on 20 and 21 January will be exclusively devoted to the institutions.
Monday and Tuesday's plenary will provide an opportunity for Convention Members to react to the Franco-German proposal regarding the EU's institutional structure (see EUROPE/Documents No 2311, published with yesterday's EUROPE). This is a major contribution like any other major contributions, Mr Meyer-Landrut simply commented, in answer to questions put to him. He noted that the Franco-German proposals will now be part of the discussions within the Convention. (See yesterday's EUROPE, p.5, on the subject of the descriptive document on the functioning of the institutions received by Convention Members).
Mr Meyer-Landrut also pointed out that the Slovenian minister for foreign affairs will henceforth represent his government at the Convention.