Brussels, 09/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - After meetings of its components on Wednesday morning, the European Convention plenary session was opened at 15: 00 hrs, revealing clear agreement between MPs and MEPs (supported by the European Commission and the political groups) to pull out the stops to make last minute changes to the future Constitutional Treaty. Despite procrastination by government representatives who, as Joschka Fischer put it, would rather have left the current compromise unchanged, it looked on Wednesday evening as if the Praesidium would not be able to ignore all amendment requests. It looked as if “symbols” (Europe's anthem, flag, etc) would be included with the IGC being invited to incorporate them in the first part of the Constitution (see below). The Praesidium met again in the evening to make the final changes, to be submitted to the Convention on Thursday at the ceremony where all Convention Members will sign the official routing document accompanying the draft Constitutional Treaty.
Outlining the changes proposed by the Praesidium, Chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said that clarification of Eurogroup measures and procedures had been requested by the vast majority (the new document stipulates that these measures cover eurozone coordination, surveillance, budget discipline and economic policy guidelines (the latter have to be compatible with guidelines for the EU as a whole)). The Praesidium also suggests the EP being consulted regarding lack of discrimination in transport and the funding of crisis management operations. With regard to immigration, a new measure guarantees Member States' right to set entry quotas for the number of non-EU nationals allowed into the country to seek paid or unpaid work. For CFSP, the European Foreign Minister will have a conciliatory role when a Member State plans to oppose the adoption of an EU decision (they can be adopted by QMV) for vital national policy interests. In terms of defence, the strengthened cooperation rules will apply to structured cooperation. The Praesidium suggests adding the option of changing to QMV for strengthened cooperation issues currently decided unanimously. It filled a loophole by foreseeing the right for people subject to sanctions to appeal to the European Court of Justice and strengthened the legal basis for research, giving the EU the option of taking measures to enable researchers to freely cooperate in the EU. Another measures would enable the EU to encourage young people to get involved in democratic life in the EU.
After outlining the changes, Giscard d'Estaing gave some statistics. The Convention held 26 plenary sessions. There were 1812 different speeches by Convention Members, totalling 5436 minutes. The Convention's website has had 682,250 hits, 97,000 of them in June 2003 alone. There were 5995 amendments.
Giscard d'Estaing said he had consulted the Académie française about the language used in the French version of the document and called for other language institutions to be consulted. He commented that some Convention Members were hoping to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The French version would be revised on Friday morning in the light of the stylistic comments made by the Académie française. He said the Convention Members had until Monday to submit comments about the language used in the document.
Dini and Mendes de Vigo stress that agreement between MPs and MEPs
(supported by political groups) has massive support at the Convention
Italian MP Lamberto Dini, speaking on half of the national parliament component, stressed that the agreement between the MP and MEP components to present a series of joint amendments was supported by the political groups. Together, MPs, MEPs and the political groups are the vast majority of the Convention, he said, urging the Praesidium to take up the amendments extending QMV to joint proposals from the European Foreign Minister and the European Commission and to tax decisions (on measures to counter fraud and tax evasion) and to introduce a measure stipulating that EU legislation shall govern the establishment and organisation of the future EU foreign office; - extension of the competency of the Court of Justice for certain aspects of he CFSP; Parliament's agreement in case of revision of the Constitution, which would be done without convening a Convention; the inclusion of symbols in the Constitution (on this final point, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said to him that, "If there is significant demand, I have a draft that we could propose" (see below). Mr Dini also indicated that representatives from the national parliaments intended to meet up informally to continue the work of the IGC. Speaking on behalf of the European Parliament, Spanish Christian Democrat, Inigo Mendes de Vigo declared that he supported the contribution by Mr Dini 100%. Mr Mendes de Vigo requested that the vote at qualified majority be planned for in measures for fighting against discrimination. He stressed that, "there is no reason to keep unanimity for issues involving the disabled or sexual equality", before adding that they ensure that the draft of the future treaty was not watered down on gender. Leader of the Liberal family, Andrew Duff from Britain and the spokesperson for the Christian Democrats, Elmar Brok (Germany) supported their two political families on the parliamentary amendments.
Commissioner Vitorino requests strengthening legal base for research and public health
Commissioner Antonio Vitorino considered that, "We could have gone further with regard to extending qualified majority voting. He also supported the formula proposed by Mr Dini for common diplomatic services, which ought to be attached to the Commission on an administrative level. Mr Vitorino also appealed for an extension of the legal base for research (in order to support European space development and research) and for public health.
Importance of symbols
In the context of symbols of European unity or rather signs", Valéry Giscard d'Estaing announced that in the letter accompanying the draft Constitution he could indicate what the European Council would decide on for including there. Pierre Lequiller, the French MEP declared that symbols was a matter for citizens. Olivier Duhamel, MEP also said that he had not heard anyone speak against symbols, adding, "every time that I meet a kleptomaniac (who wanted to make them disappear he told me: it's not me. Symbols cost nothing, they don't create a super state…Mr Christopehrsen told me that I had completely convinced him. I hope that he will help us to get the support of the last of the doubters or forget them"
Cultural exception: Mr Fischer includes French concerns-sharp opposition from Netherlands
Mr Lequiller regretted that the editing by the Presidium of the cultural exception did not comply with the objective of cultural diversity, which was one of the specificities of the European continent. Without entering into detail, the German Foreign Affairs Minister, Joschka Fischer, said that he understood French concerns and that they had to find a solution. French Senator Hubert Haenel considered that they had to prevent this matter going to the IGC and requested the Presidium for a final effort of "imagination". Gijs de Vries said that the Netherlands was opposed to unanimity in this field, "we are not tying the hand of the Union at a world level", he stressed. He warned against the risk of some governments to call for unanimity elsewhere.
Calls from Michel Barnier and AndrewDuff
With their draft on the table, "no counts in a greater Europe" existed for issues like the veto and economic governance. This was the less than enthusiastic observation made by Michel Barnier who thought that "after a mistake, an even worse one is to leave the original uncorrected" and that on Wednesday ad Thursday the Convention would have to therefore try and improve the draft. VG asked him whether he should deduce that, "you would be against re-establishing unanimity in other areas?"(reference to the cultural exception addressed to a French Commissioner). Mr Barnier replied that this would not bother him at all and that the Commission had been very clear on the matter and would confirm its recommendation next September.
MEP Andrew Duff wanted to see in the accompanying letter of the final draft, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing sending the IGC his request for future revisions of the Constitution and more flexible procedures in unanimity but recognised that the Convention was unable to reach a decision on the matter.