Brussels, 25/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - Various Convention Members- including Alain Lamassoure, Carlos Carnero Gonzales, Anne van Lancker, and Marie Nagy- will, at the next session of the European Convention on 15 and 16 May, bring up the problem of the timetable for work on reform of the Treaty, by broadly taking up, in a contribution to the Convention, suggestions made by some hundred NGO representatives to extend the timescale (see EUROPE of 23 April, p.7, and also of yesterday, p.9, on Elmar Brok's concerns at the tight timetable imposed on the Convention by the informal European Council in Athens on 16 April). This was announced on Friday to several journalists by Pier Virgilio Dastoli, spokesperson for one such organisation, the Permanent Forum of Civil Society, which works actively on reform, in close contact with the Convention Members.
The Forum is challenging the conclusion of the Athens European Council, which asked the Convention to complete its work on 20 June, indicated Mr Dastoli, who pointed out that the Convention's President, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, had gone to Athens with the intention of explaining that the work could not be finished by then, and to ask for an extension, and for a special European Council to be called, devoted to the Convention's conclusions. However, this special European Council, planned for 30 June, was cancelled, which "deeply irritated Valéry Giscard d'Estaing", said Mr Dastoli, acknowledging to European Council President Costas Simitis the "intellectual honesty" of saying that the Convention's work would end on 20 June, satisfactory or otherwise. This procedure is unacceptable, and if the Treaty reform work must continue beyond June, it should be done by the Convention, which includes representatives from governments and parliaments, said Mr Dastoli, who criticized the behaviour of five Foreign Affairs Ministers (from France, Germany, Spain, Greece and Belgium) who sit on the Convention, and who should have "defended the Convention's methods" in Athens, but failed to do so. Although Valéry Giscard d'Estaing accepted the Athens decision, Mr Dastoli noted, Convention Members who want a different timetable can ask for one. He felt that the Athens decision was the expression of "a certain irritation with national diplomacy" which "no longer wants to know about the Convention", largely because, if it is successful, the Convention's method could also be applied to future revision of the Treaty. "The Heads of State and Government are afraid of a European power growing in strength", he said, calling upon the European Parliament also to rally for a "democratic agenda".
The timetable put forward by the NGOs consists of two phases: - presentation of a preliminary draft in June, to be discussed by the European Council, the European Parliament and national parliaments; - presentation of the complete text in October (which would not go against "the Italians' idea that it should conclude in December", comments Mr Dastoli). Romano Prodi said that the next IGC should be "short and decisive", he recalled, and should not "deknit" the Convention's work. Among the reasons for justifying the extension of the work, Mr Dastoli emphasised: - the importance of the work still to be done on the second part of the Constitution on policies, which is "by no means a technicality", because it is mainly a case of "knowing who does what". This part cannot be given entirely over to an IGC, exclaimed Mr Dastoli; - the fact that Convention Members from national parliaments have, up to now, had very few exchanges with their parliaments on the Convention's progress. I believe that Valéry Giscard d'Estaing is "interested" in this two-stage procedure, indicated Mr Dastoli.
Another Forum member, Philippe Grosjean, spoke of his "disappointment" at what appears to be "a kind of show they wish to take over". Whereas governments initially "sent the small fry", as soon as the idea of drafting a "new fundamental text" was confirmed, certain Foreign Affairs Ministers suddenly wanted to be part of the Convention, he commented. He stressed that the Athens decisions could "gag" the European Parliament, because once there is no more Convention, all it will have the power to do is give its opinion on the opening of an intergovernmental conference, then make a statement on its results.