Brussels, 22/07/2003 (Agence Europe) - Given the timetable of the Italian Presidency with the opening of the Intergovernmental Conference on 4 October in Rome, and its closure in December, several Member States and the acceding countries called, on Monday during a General Affairs Council debate, for experts to intervene in preparing the final text. They also warned against all haste. Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner spoke of meetings of experts and multilateral meetings and Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja hoped that legal experts would be called in. The Lithuanian, Estonian and Czech ministers spoke along the same lines. Their views caused a strong reaction from the German Permanent Representative, Wilhelm Schonfelder, who said that "if one really wants to take the road of the preparatory groups, one heads straight for Nice".
Sweden also felt that the convening of the IGC is over hasty in so far as the Swedish parliament must discuss the draft constitutional treaty and give its negotiating brief to its government before the IGC opens.