Brussels, 02/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - "I was a little surprised to hear declarations that the European Commission would attempt to slow down progress in the European Convention. The opposite is true", averred the President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, speaking from St Petersburg, where he was taking part in the EU/Russia Summit- without naming the originator of these comments, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (see also pages 3 and 4 of this Bulletin, and EUROPE of 29 May, p.4). "I want to offer my support to the President of the Convention: we share the same goal because we both want the Convention to be a success", insisted Mr Prodi, adding, "The duty of the members of the Convention is to write a Constitution for Europe. They should not accept a text that in many areas gives us less than the Treaties we already have in force. Unfortunately the draft before us is less ambitious than I had hoped for and even less than President Giscard d'Estaing himself had in mind in the beginning". Mr Prodi continues: "But this historic moment should not be about anyone's personal ambitions. This is the moment we can lay the foundations for the future of the EU- or fail by accepting a poor compromise. I am sure that President Giscard wants to be remembered as one of the founding fathers of a modern European constitution- not as someone whose genius was suffocated by those who are unable to admit that status quo equals paralysis for all of us". The Commission President concludes: "First and foremost, we must make our institutions more efficient by extending the majority voting to almost all areas of policy, including foreign and fiscal policy (…) I realise that in some areas it may not be possible to reach final solutions at this stage. If this is the case the text should include an evolutionary clause to give the possibility of solving later whatever cannot be decided today".