Brussels, 18/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 17 September, several well-known figures took part in the launch of a new form of “deliberative poll” developed by Notre Europe to improve dialogue with citizens and enhance their perception of the EU and its policies. Based on a truly representative sample of ordinary citizens, the deliberative consultation is different from a poll in that it provides objective information about possible options for Europe's future and brings citizens together for discussion in the European Parliament (see http://www.tomorrowseurope.eu ). On Monday evening, the vice-president of the Commission, Margot Wallström, recalled the importance that the European Commission attaches to dialogue with citizens, which means coming closer to them in real life. “There were 105 new competencies in the rejected Constitution; there are 105 in the new”, said Danish eurosceptic Jens Peter Bonde, calling for a referendum to be held throughout the Union on the same day. He said the method of the Convention “was very good … but the result was a mess”, before going on to deplore the fact that the new text that one does not want to put to a referendum leads to a State where there is no “joint democracy, no joint welfare, no joint budget”. The Italian home minister, Giuliano Amato, said on the other hand that there was no reason to have the new text approved by referendum as it is just a treaty which has nothing constitutional about it. He said accession to the European Convention on Human Rights would require ratification from all member states. The former European Convention chairman, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, said the “huge amount of public frustration” could be explained mainly by the size of the European population, which is almost twice that of the United States, which is extremely diversified when it comes to political, economic and cultural levels. The excessive “political correctness” and the “very inflexible” way of thinking within the European institutions also fuels misunderstanding, he said. (oj)