Brussels, 27/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - If Pat Cox agrees to the suggestion made by the European Parliament's Constitutional Committee on 26 April, he will read out a statement to the plenary in Strasbourg on 4 May, reaffirming the support of the European Parliament, or a large majority of it at least, for the European Convention's draft Constitution. In this statement, Pat Cox will also reiterate that Parliament expects the Heads of State and Government to adopt the Constitution by the end of the up, having focused the IGC's work on the few remaining essential issues. This statement would round off the debate on 4 May, on the 20th anniversary of the Spinelli draft Treaty and the 25th anniversary of the death of Jean Monnet. Commenting on the suggestion that rather than limiting itself to a statement, Parliament should formally and symbolically adopt the European Convention's draft, the President of the Constitutional Committee Giorgio Napolitano (Democratici di Sinistra) said that the adoption of the entire text would be "highly contentious, if not inadmissible" procedurally, and would also pose institutional problems, consisting of the fruit of much work by "four institutional components".
"We shall never desist" from our objective of giving the EU a Constitution, is something else Pat Cox should promise on behalf of the European Parliament, according to the draft statement read out on Monday evening by Giorgio Napolitano. He told Dutch Christian Democrat Cees Bremmer, who felt that the Parliament should express itself more positively, that he favoured a touch of "Churchillian" rhetoric, to bring some much-needed drama to the debate. During the debate on this text (to which we will come back), MEPs were in favour of José Maria Gil-Robles's (Partido Popular) idea to add a reference to the European citizens to Pat Cox's statement. The Dane Jens-Peter Bonde, President of the EDD group, brought in a discordant note by observing that in his statement, Pat Cox cannot present a majority position as if it were shared by all. Mr Bonde called for either a vote on this text, or for "a few lines" to be added on the majority position. Austrian Green Hannes Voggenhuber said: if a parliament has held a majority position on an issue for over twenty years, this is that parliament's position, and calling for "footnotes" to be added "is not democracy". Giorgio Napolitano said that the text for Pat Cox to read out, if he "assumes paternity" (and, if he wishes, make a few "nips and tucks" to the Constitutional Committee's draft), will try to take on board all of Parliament's opinions, but probably not "the most contradictory ones".
As it passes the baton to the MEPs to be elected in June, the Constitutional Committee took stock of its five year mandate: a very positive overview, according to its members, who all stressed the enormous progress of Constitutional debate in these five years, and since the first Parliament was elected in 1979. Reminding me of this process, said Mr Napolitano, you have made me "a bit more optimistic than I have been recently" (he particularly addressed MEPs who have been in the Parliament since 1979, such as Ursula Schleicher, CSU MEP, or British Labour MEP Richard Corbett, who went on to become an MEP having been secretary to the Institutional Committee and Socialist group co-ordinator for institutional issues). Mr Napolitano will not be standing at the forthcoming European elections, and his colleagues (including Jens-Peter Bonde and Italian Radical Gianfranco Dell'Alba, despite early arguments about Olaf's role with regard to MEPs) paid tribute to his vast experience, knowledge, wisdom and political courage, and the sense of humour with which he tempered his strictness as President. Several MEPs were moved to lyricism, such as Giorgios Dimitrakopoulos (Nea Demokratia) who quoted from T.S. Eliot's The Cocktail Party in his farewell to Giorgio Napolitano: what we know of people are only memoirs of the moments spent with them (and Napolitano, pointing out that it was 26 April, quoted Eliot back: April is the cruellest month. A Spanish classic from my childhood tells us that "dreams are dreams", but in real life dreams can come true, said Inigo Mendez de Vigo (Partido Popular). Alonso Puerta (Izquierda unida) said "this parliament has been a kind of constituent parliament". Several MEPs raised points from the draft Constitution: British Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff mentioned revision procedures and the entry into force of the Constitution, and Scottish Nationalist Neil McCormick raised fisheries. I am "enthusiastic" about the draft Constitution, but I cannot approve it unless the passage on this policy is changed, he said, warning: if he wants the Scottish to vote "yes" at the referendum on the Constitution, Tony Blair will have to get the fisheries policy changed. German Social Democrat Jo Leinen referred to the part of the draft statement in which Pat Cox should ask the Heads of State and Government to draw inspiration from the Treaty when appointing the next President of the European Commission (taking account of the results of the European elections). He feels that the European Council should appoint Romano Prodi's successor during the opening session of the new Parliament (in Strasbourg from 20 to 23 July).