07/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - Maurizio Turco, elected on the Lista Bonino, has pointed out that Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had given his assurance in a letter that the Praesidium of the European Convention would duly take into account its proposal (signed up to at this stage by 233 MEPs and 229 representatives of the fifteen Member States). The proposal provides for "respect of the principles of religious freedom and a secular State" to be included in the future Constitutional Treaty. The draft Article 37 from the Praesidium in no way takes these principles into account, Mr Turco indignantly points out in a press release in which he also raises the problem of the Catholic Church, which is both a "religious confession and sovereign State". The State of the Vatican, he recalls, has its own "central bank" which carries out the activity of a mint without been subject to the same controls as all the central banks of Member States. "In absolutely technical terms, the Vatican is a tax haven", the Italian Radical declared.