Brussels, 10/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - In a first contribution to the European Convention explaining "what kind of Europe we want", the European Movement states: "We want a European Union which heals the wounds of past divisions and which continues to ensure peace among its Member States, among its potential future Members, and between its Members and the rest of the world". The European Movement Ireland wants a Union "in which citizens enjoy real and effective ownership of the Constitutional and legislative processes", "which realises, for the benefit of its peoples, the gins which globalisation and an open world reading and investment system can confer" and which "effectively counters the negative effects of globalisation and the exploitation of the weak and disadvantages". This Europe must continue to respect and achieve economic and social cohesion within and between Member states and which "strives for justice and equity in governance throughout the world", says the European Movement Ireland. It then goes on: "We want a European Union which acts as a community only where it can be shown that common action is more effective in securing the interests of its people than action by the individual Member States, and which allows the maximum scope of local determination and diversity".
This, according to the European Union Europe, in particular demands: - a "Treaty which is simple, clear, comprehensible and accessible to all"; - "a Treaty which enshrines fundamental values and institutions of representative democracy";, and which "guarantees the protection of fundamental rights at every level at which the responsibility for the vindication of these rights is to be found"; - a Treaty which "provides a clear framework for deciding where the boundaries between community and national action lie"; - a Treaty "which makes the European Union an area of freedom, security and justice". As for Ireland's specific interests, the text stipulates that they "are to be expressed in the context of the elaboration of individual policy actions, in accordance with the general principles set out above."