Brussels, 14/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - President Giscard d'Estaing will present to the plenary of the Convention on 17 March the Praesidium's draft articles on the area of liberty, security and justice and on the finances of Europe. The plenary will then discuss the amendments to articles 24 to 33 on the EU's instruments and procedures (see EUROPE of 1 March, p.3, and next article). The Convention will debate the draft protocols on subsidiarity and national parliaments on 18 March. Spokesperson Niklaus Meyer-Landrut stated on Friday that 361 amendments have been tabled: 237 on articles 24 to 33, 83 on subsidiarity and 41 on national parliaments. He continued:
- Area of liberty, security and justice. The Praesidium drew up a "header" article (31) this week, as well as draft articles on the second half of the Treaty, based on the results of the Bruton working group (the chapters are mainly about border controls, exile and immigration, legal co-operation in civil and in criminal affairs).
- Union finances. Three general articles (38, 39 and 40) raise fundamental questions, without at this stage making any recommendations: - will the enlarged EU be able to continue making and ratifying unanimous decisions on own resources?; - under these conditions, will it be possible to establish real autonomous own resources? A discussion group chaired by Henning Christophersen will make recommendations between now and the end of April on the details of the budgetary procedure, including the possibility of adopting the budget by a simplified co-decision procedure.
On the subject of the "basic document" on the second part of the Treaty submitted to the Praesidium by legal experts, Mr Meyer-Landrut pointed out that this was essentially a technical piece of work, which "takes the Treaties as they stand", but which adapts them to the new structure, getting rid of certain articles in accordance with the consensus arrived at by the Convention, or because they are no longer relevant. Won't this document end up like the Commission's "Penelope" text? Mr Meyer-Landrut thinks not, pointing out in particular that "Penelope" introduces substantial changes, which is not the case here.
As regards the June deadline for presenting the Convention's final report, Mr Meyer-Landrut said: we are assuming that we will get there, even on the second half of the Treaty, and the "basic document" is a "not inconsiderable contribution" to the effort.