Brussels, 22/01/2003 (Agence Europe) - At the end of the first European Convention debate on institutions, German Social-Democrat Klaus Haensch, who is one of the two European Parliament representatives on the presidium, made a positive assessment of the exercise, considering that the Convention had made a "genuine breakthrough" (see yesterday's EUROPE, pages 4 to 7). He mentioned the consensus reached on: - extending co-decision and enhancing the EP's budgetary powers; - the EP's electing the Commission president; - creating a European foreign minister; - extending qualified majority voting in the Council and creating a legislative Council. Regarding the election of a European Council president, that he would like to see, he mentioned several conditions to have emerged from the debate that seem to him necessary: (1) a strict definition of distinct roles from that of the president of the Commission; (2) no own administration (the Council Secretariat should suffice, he said); (3) a definition of the role of the European Council that would rule out in future it being a substitute for other Council formations; (4) retention, with changes of the system of rotation for chairing Council formations.