Brussels, 19/02/2003 (Agence Europe) - During a press conference, European Convention spokesman, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut presented the results of the last meeting of the Presidium in preparation for the plenary of 27-28 February, which will be dedicated to the debate on the first 16 articles of the future European Constitution. Amendments to the draft Articles continue to build up and their number is now around a thousand. After the first wave of individual amendments, a certain number of collective amendments and compromises have begun to arrive, although some Convention members decided to withdraw individual amendments that they had first presented. As we already indicated (see EUROPE 18 February p 6), the Presidium has so far not sought to present revised draft articles. Mr Meyer-Landrut explained that the Presidium was waiting to gauge the content of the discussions next week in order to determine whether the drafts presented already constitute a "starting point" or if a compromise is being developed for the different modifications.
The plenary on 27-28 February will be divided into three parts: 1) The plenary will examine Articles 1 2 and 3 on Thursday afternoon before "the coffee break". The spokesman explained that the discussion was expected to tackle the major themes in each Article. In Article 1 for example they could focus on a) references to people, citizens an countries; b) federal references; c) the source of sovereignty and the allocation principle; 2) after the coffee break, Convention Members will discuss Articles 5, 6, and 7 (Charter of Fundamental Rights, citizenship and non-discrimination; 3) Friday morning will be the presentation of draft Articles 24-31. The convention will also examine Articles involving competencies (see EUROPE 10 February p 6). Mr Meyer-Landrut also pointed out that the amendments did not question the general approach outlined by the Presidium but would focus essentially on definitions and category content. He also stressed that in this new work phase for Convention members, the organisation of debates was expected to leave more time to intervene in the debate whenever they wished but in a way that would leave a place for genuine dialogue between Convention Members.