Brussels, 27/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - Given that no less than 1,700 amendments have been received on the 350 Article in the third part of the draft constitutional treaty (policies of the Union), the Presidium chose to wait for the plenary debate on 4 July to see which ones would be retained. On Thursday it began revision of the draft upon which it will submit a revised text to Convention Members, which includes a certain number of clarifications and technical modifications. These changes, most minor, concern particularly economic governance.. For example, the Convention spokesperson, Niklaus Meyer-Landrut, mentioned the setting of two and a half years for the length of Presidency of Eurogroup (instead of two years) in order to ensure that it fitted with its other mandates. Other amendments involve the establishment of a common diplomatic service under the responsibility of the future Foreign Affairs Minister. A legal basis is proposed for accompaniment measures in the fight against cross-border problems. No change has been added to part 4 (general and final provisions).
In connection to how the work has gone, Mr Meyer-Landrut indicated that the 4 July would be entirely focusing on the traditional plenary debate, in which the Presidium would draw its conclusions for proposing a series of amendments for the 9 July session that is expected to follow the same model as that of 12 June, with notably meetings of the different components, a last meeting of the Presidium and a plenary at the end of the afternoon. The 10 July plenary is expected to allow final consensus to be observed.