Brussels, 28/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - At a press conference on Wednesday, at the sidelines of the EU-Canada Summit in Athens, President Romano Prodi described the draft Constitution recently circulated by the Presidium of the European Convention as "disappointing". "Despite the sheer quantity of hard work that has gone into it, the document before us lacks vision and ambition", said Mr Prodi, as quoted by Reuters. This draft does not "solve the problems created by the Treaty of Nice", declared Mr Prodi, adding: "On the contrary, to a certain extent it is a step backwards: for example, in terms of qualified majority voting where the Union must go forward to avoid paralysis. I want to say this as a wake-up call for the members of the Convention. We cannot let ourselves become victims or hostages of a text which fails to propose solutions, which is threatening to paralyse Europe".
In his re-transmitted speech on Tuesday before the Congress of European Trades Unions in Prague, the President of the European Commission had already said that the Convention Members had lots more work ahead of them. "I suggest we let the workers get on with their work after the European Summit (of Thessaloniki: Ed) and up to the beginning of the Intergovernmental Conference", he said.