Brussels, 22/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Greens/EFA Group at the European Parliament adopted on 16 November in Strasbourg, on the fringe of the plenary session, a text entitled "Yes to the European Constitution" in which it states that, despite the imperfections of the text, "our task is to change the Constitution and not prevent it from being adopted. It seems illusory to us to believe that rejecting this Constitution today would provide an opportunity to produce a better one later on. Forcing the enlarged 25-member Union to remain with the Amsterdam and Nice Treaties when other accession processes are underway could cause a crisis likely to threaten Europe's process of unification".
The Greens, which regret that citizens are not themselves able to adopt the Constitution during a European referendum, are launching a campaign for gaining their support so that the European Parliament may use its right of own initiative and, from ratification of the Constitution, call for a further Convention to be convened and for a "First Amendment" to the Constitution to be ratified. This first amendment would aim to: - extend European democracy (generalisation of co-decision and qualified majority, a legislative Council enacting in public, and abolition of the Intergovernmental Conference for amending the Constitution); - establish a European order for peace (CFSP and ESDP, which come under the Community method, "place war outside the law", and military action demands assent from the European Parliament); - and establish an area of security, justice and social solidarity (especially, full employment will be included in Part III of the Constitution, and European laws will establish common social norms and minimum common rates for corporate taxation). To take these new steps, the Constitution must first be adopted, the Green MEPs warn. (See text on: http: //http://www.greens-efa.org/ ).