Dear Europeans,

Finally, but slowly, there seems to be some progress in the Convention. The first two working groups are nearly finished and have published their preliminary results. At the first session after the summer break, the discussion moved from general issues to concrete legal questions. There are also more detailed summaries available from the Convention secretariat on the first phase, which enabled Convention members to work with concrete documents. President Giscard d’Estaing also announced that he will present a more detailed framework for the Presidium’s draft of a European Constitutional Treaty, which will give a direction to the debate within the Convention.

Another important development is the publication of several Constitutional proposals from different parties, which are included in this Bulletin. This shows that the idea of a European Constitution is broadly accepted, and that the time has come to decide on the exact content of this Constitution.

The next meeting of the Convention will concentrate on the topics of subsidiarity and legal personality, with subsequent meetings concentrating on the Charter on Fundamental rights, complementary competences, and Economic governance. These issues often sound dry and technical, but they are highly-sensitive, and the outcome of these discussions will have important implications for the final institutional settlement.

Youth organisations will continue to watch the latest developments closely. As soon as concrete proposals are on the table, there will be responses from young people all over Europe to ensure that our voices, and our ideas, are not forgotten. The Youth Convention of this summer, as well as Youth 2002 in Denmark, showed that young people have clear demands and a strong vision, and will not be content for the Convention merely to reorganise existing treaties or preserve the intergovernmental status quo.

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the Bulletin, send your contribution to info@constitutional-convention.net (deadline for the 14th issue is 1 October). As usual, you can see all articles of this Bulletin in full length at: www.constitutional-convention.net .

Best European greetings,

Your Editors.