Brussels, 18/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - At a Press conference, the President of the EP's delegation at the European Convention, Inigo Mendez de Vigo (EPP, Spain) echoed President Giscard d'Estaing's words of the day before (see yesterday's Europe, p.8), saying that the Presidium of the Convention did not want a text with options, and that greater flexibility must be demonstrated if more time was needed than afforded by the current timetable. Asked about how consensus will be reached if a large country such as the United Kingdom was opposed to several fundamental points, Mr Mendez de Vigo stated that the consensus could be claimed with a large majority across all the component parts of the Convention. "Here, there is no veto", he added.
Mr Mendez de Vigo also expressed his hopes that the future Constitution would be subject to the approval of the European population in a Union-wide referendum to coincide with the European elections.