Dear Europeans,

Two weeks ago we experienced one of the most important and remarkable Convention plenaries. After the heated debates outside the Convention, last plenary finally discussed the issues of the future institutional structure of the European Union. Some 80 speakers took the opportunity to voice their opinion.

A large majority of the Convention members referred in their contributions to the German-French proposal on institutions, which was published a few days before the Convention plenary (we published it in the last bulletin). Although the representatives of the French and the German governments are important players in the Convention, we have bear in mind that there are 103 other full Convention members. This was stressed by Andrew Duff MEP who published, together with a large number of other Convention members, a paper on institutions. In the paper he summarised several topics that the majority of the Convention members seem to agree on, although Giscard d'Estaing has so far refused to accept these majority opinions.

The majority of the Convention members agreed on some key issues such as that the European Parliament should elect the Commission President, that there should be no permanent elected President of the European Council, and that there should be a true European Foreign Minister. Nevertheless Giscard failed to mention these issues in his summary at the end of the meeting as majority positions. This bulletin includes two press releases that emphasize that the Convention president has to accept that the majority of the Convention members are not in favour of an intergovernmental method. The "Intergroup of the European Convention for a European Constitution" came to the same conclusion. Building up on Andrew Duff’s contribution to the Convention, members of this group will put forward additional proposals on the institutional structure of the future European Union.

On the other hand, in our interview with the British government representative, Peter Hain, you will find an interesting opinion on the Convention and on institutions, which in many parts coincides with the German and French proposals.

On Monday, 27th January 2003, the last working group had its final meeting. ”Social Europe" needed a full day to conclude its work, which it had started only a few weeks ago. Since the official final report is not public yet, we have included a preliminary report. Besides the discussions about "Social Europe" and "Regions in Europe" (both topics for the next Convention plenary) the debate about religion in the Constitution is emerging again. The Convention presidium will present the first articles of the Constitution at the end of February; these could well include a first direct proposal on this issue. We have attached two Convention contributions that show the wide-ranging opinions on this issue.

There are two further discussions that are expected to take place in the Convention in the next weeks. More and more politicians and NGOs are putting forward ideas about a European-wide referendum on the Constitution. An informal Convention intergroup has been established to discuss this topic. Before the next plenary a joint contribution on this issue will be presented. Several politicians within and outside the Convention are also presently pushing for a discussion on the future of the Euratom-Treaty.

On the second European Youth Convention there is also news. Inigo Mendez de Vigo (MEP and member of the Convention presidium) has urged the Presidium several times to discuss the issue of a second Youth Convention. It was on the agenda at the Presidium meeting that took place last Thursday. Nevertheless we have no information on the outcome of the meeting yet. There have also been discussions within the Youth Convention Presidium, the European Youth Forum and the Youth Contact Group on the Convention on this issue. If there is a green light of the Convention Secretariat, a second Youth Convention could take place in Mai.

In order to follow up the debate within the Convention on the institutions, we will have another chat on Monday, 10th February 7 PM – please visit http://www.constitutional-convention.net/ (link in the middle of the page).

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the bulletin, send your contribution to info@Constitutional-Convention.net (deadline for the 22nd issue is 11th February). As usual, you can see all articles of this Bulletin in full length on the Constitutional Convention Homepage: http://www.constitutional-Convention.net/

Best European greetings,

Your Editors

PS: Please accept our apologies for the delay in sending this edition due to a technical problem beyond our control. The Constitutional Convention website will be fully working again in the next days.