Brussels, 13/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - Several European Social and Social Democrat leaders, including Giuliano Amato, Vice-President of the Party of European Socialists chaired by Robin Cook and former Vice-President of the European Convention, have launched a campaign to "save" the European Convention's draft Constitution, and above all the Legislative Council that the Inrtergovernmental Conference rejected hardly without debate. Among the 63 signatories so far, there are former Convention Members John Bruton, Elmar Brok, Andrew Duff, Maria Berger, and the Chair of the constitutional committee of the European Parliament, Giorgio Napolitano. The appeal will be presented to the Italian Presidency.
Austrian national Maria Berger, MEP, remarks in a press release that "the Legislative Council is important for democracy and transparency in the European Union. But rejecting it is about the only thing that the intergovernmental conference has been able to agree on so far". In her view, "governments do not like the Legislative Council because it would effectively be the second chamber to the European Parliament. Ministers in charge of different policy areas are up in arms because they would lose power".