Brussels, 28/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Convention Presidium prepared a new series of draft articles to be presented to the plenary on 3-4 April. This involves the fourth section from the draft Constitution ("the democratic life of the Union"), which consists of seven articles: the principle of democratic equality of Union citizens; the principle of participative democracy; a European Ombudsman; European political parties; transparency of the functioning of the institutions; protection of personal related data; status of the churches and secular organisations. This new structure introduces changes to the architecture of last October, which only included five articles: equality; participative; uniform electoral law for the election of the EP; transparency; voting rules for the institutions and constructive abstention. The Presidium has also prepared the single draft article under section nine on the "Union and its close environment" as well as those in section ten on "belonging to the Union"; eligibility criteria; accession procedure; suspension of rights to belong to the Union; voluntary withdrawal. The Presidium finally prepared a draft of general and final provisions, indicated the spokesman, Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, who explained that all papers would be presented at the plenary of Friday 4 April. On 3 April, the Convention will discuss the draft articles on A Freedom, Security and Justice Area on Friday morning and after the presentation of the new articles, it would discuss Union funding. The spokesman explained that in order to respect the timetable, which is planning for all the draft articles to be presented by the end of April, the Presidium is expected to extend its meetings by half a day during April.