Brussels, 19/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - Several members of the Permanent Forum of the Civil Society have written to Pat Cox, European Parliament President, as they consider it is up to the Parliament to declare, without delay, that it is not appropriate to task diplomats with the drafting - or even the finalisation of a draft - of a Constitution, the nature and source of legitimacy of which substantially differ from those of an international treaty. According to the Forum, this would be an intolerable offence to European and national democracy which could jeopardise the opinion of the civil society when citizens are called upon to give their views on the Constitution. The Forum recalls that it has asked Convention Members to propose a timetable allowing the Convention to reach a consensus on ambitious constitutional reform in two separate stages: - presentation of a draft Constitution in June-July (not only at the European Council but also at the Commission, the EP and the national parliaments; - adoption of a complete, global and coherent project, with a timeframe allowing the European Council to decide before the end of this year (July-October). The Forum therefore calls on the EP to adopt its opinion on convening the Intergovernmental Conference only once these two stages have been fully completed.
The Forum also wrote an open letter to Costas Simitis and George Papandreou calling on them to reflect on its proposals. The timetable, which calls for extension of the Convention's mandate, should not be considered a failure, the Forum affirms. Its proposal specifies that: -VGE should present the preliminary draft Constitution to the EP (from 1-3 July in Strasbourg); - the Convention should draw up a draft Constitution taking the Council and EP debates into account, and the Convention Members from the national parliaments should (in July) determine their attitude on the basis of guidelines given by their assemblies; - VGE should submit this project before end December, at an extraordinary Summit (with candidate countries), in order to decide to hold a referendum on the Constitution in the 25 member countries, at the same time as the European elections in June 2004.