Brussels, 24/11/2006 (Agence Europe) - Current leader of the EPP-ED group in the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, who is scheduled to be elected President of the EP on 16 January, felt it was “very likely” that the reflection on the European Constitution under the German Presidency in the first half of 2007 would lead to the organisation of a new inter-governmental convention (IGC) to prepare a new Treaty. The European Council of June 2007, due to decide on the methodology and timetable for the work “will probably grant a mandate for a new IGC with the European Parliament and European Commission strongly represented,” Mr Pöttering told journalists in Brussels on Friday. “According to rumour, there will be a new IGC,” he said. Mr Pöttering, a member of the CDU and very close to Angela Merkel, and the leader of the PES group in the EP Martin Schulz, met the forthcoming President of the European Council on Monday.
Mr Pöttering believes it essential that the future IGC “does not begin negotiations right back at the beginning”, but “respects the work done by the European Convention”, taking on board the substance of the draft European Constitution, “especially Part I on reform and Part II on Values”. Part III, he felt, could be reduced and further compressed. The “Declaration of Berlin” on the future of Europe, which Member States, the Commission and the Parliament will adopt together on 25 March 2007 (50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome), will prepare June 2007 European Council's mandate on the new Treaty, stressing, in particular, European values and the need to reform the EU, he said. (hb)