Brussels, 10/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the chairman of the European Parliament constitutional affairs committee, Jo Leinen (PES), presented his “personal” proposal (drawn up with the assistance of two professors from the University of Lausanne) to take the EU out of its institutional crisis. He proposes to divide the current draft Constitutional Treaty into two. Firstly, a Fundamental Treaty, which would have 70 articles: all articles 1-60 in part I of the Constitutional Treaty (on the values, objectives competences and institutions of the EU) and articles 437 to 448 of part IV (on the revision of the treaty). This Fundamental Treaty would be accompanied by a protocol containing the Charter of Fundamental Rights. A reference in article 9 of the Fundamental Treaty would make the Charter legally binding. And secondly, a Treaty on the EU's Policies which would correspond to part III of the Constitutional Treaty and would amend the Treaty of Nice. To take account of the concerns expressed by citizens in the referendums in France and the Netherlands and also in the debate on the future of Europe, Mr Leinen proposes that two protocols be added to the Treaty on the EU's Policies: one on climate change and the other on social Europe. The social protocol would introduce minimum social standards (such as a European minimum wage) and assessments of social impact for all new European legislation.
The advantage of this proposal is that it retains the substance of the Constitutional Treaty (apart from the term “constitutional” in its title, while the European symbols of part I of the current text will all be retained), while making it “simpler, more comprehensible and more transparent”. This is a solution “plus” which would be better than a mini-treaty or a simplified treaty, restricted to the institutional innovations of the Constitutional Treaty, as Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed, says Mr Leinen. The two treaties and three protocols should be discussed at an inter-governmental conference under Portuguese presidency and adopted by the European Council of December 2007, before ratification by the 27 member states (through parliamentary ratification or by referendum, as they choose) “before the beginning of the campaign for the European elections in spring 2009”. The full text of the proposal is available at http://www.joleinen.de (hb)