Brussels, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - It started as a note for the Jean Jaurès Foundation. Entitled "A Constitution for Wider Europe", this document aims to carry out the necessary decrypting of the draft Constitution: on citizenship, the institutions, economic and social Europe... But, the MEP who presides over the fortunes of the French socialist delegation, feels that the main thing is to give a wake-up call to the Eurosceptics of the French socialist party and elsewhere. Pervenche Bérès feels that the Constitution is not the be-all and end-all, we must "go beyond it", using the intergovernmental conference to push forward common policies especially "in the two crucial fields, economic and social". Not hiding your head in the sand could be the note's other strap-line. "The result obtained (at the Convention) may not be an historical compromise, but it answers our historical duty of making Europe work", Pervenche Bérès told EUROPE. But "we must be honest, this wider Europe cannot bolster the ambitions which we share with the countries of the euro zone. This is not our ideal Europe". She feels that there should be three projects included without delay among Europe's ambitions. "For old Europeans like French socialists, who have been in on this collective adventure since the beginning, it is as it should be that they aspire to harmonisation of taxation (starting with company and trading tax), to a real European government for economic values and the definition of social standards", she says. She was not scared to dive into the social issues, where others such as Jacques Delors were wont to tread carefully. We need a genuine "convergence plan on social security", she added, pre-empting any criticism, especially that which could come from the extreme left. Because how, in a debate on pensions, can you not talk about pensions funds? "Now that we have free circulation of capital and the principle of discrimination at European level, the result is that the rich can use their pension funds for their retirement, and come out of solidarity", she said, adding; "by not talking about social security at European level, we are not really defending social security".
"A Constitution for wider Europe", preface by Pierre Loscovici (note 36, October 2003), is available in French from the Jean-Jaurès Foundation. Tel (33) 01.40.23.24.00, or visit http://www.jean-jaures.org .