Dear Europeans,

After the publication of the first draft for the future constitution by the convention presidium, the discussions on the topics of the convention are really starting in public. The two main institutional questions of the last few weeks: "Will there be a Congress of the People?" and "Do we need an elected President of the Commission?" are tackled in more and more newspapers and public discussions. More and more important politicians and academics are starting to answer the institutional questions. Joschka Fischer again spoke in favour of a Commission President elected by the European Parliament and has also spoken against an intergovernmental Europe. The new Constitution proposal of the EPP is as well as the proposal by Jo Leinen are extremely federal and more and more politicians seem to see this model as the only way forward.

Whereas the debate on a new name for the European Union died before it really started, there are new debates that show that the convention deals with issues that matter to the citizens of Europe. There has been the proposal to include a reference to religion and to Christian values in the constitution, which will be discussed quite heatedly in the following month. The position of Giscard, that Turkey should never become a member of the European Union, was hotly debated.

In addition, one of the results of the last convention plenary will be the establishment of a new working group "Social Europe", as demanded by several convention members from different parties and previously called for by European NGOs. The contribution of many European citizens in an online chat with Giscard shows that there is now the real chance that this convention of experts will transform itself more into a convention of the public.

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the bulletin, send your contribution to to info@constitutional-convention.net (deadline for the 18th issue is 26th November). As usual, you can see all articles of this Bulletin in full length on the Constitutional Convention Homepage: http://www.constitional-convention.net.

Best European greetings,

Your Editors