Dear Europeans,

In these weeks the Convention tackles two crucial issues in the debate on the Future of Europe: the involvement of civil society, and the question of justice and home affairs. The heated debates on issues such as terrorism or organised crime at last weeks’ Convention meeting mirrors precisely the dilemma in the current European debate. On the one hand almost everybody agrees that the European institutions need to have more power in certain policy fields to face challenges such as security threats, globalisation or economic and social issues. When it then comes to the question of reforming the Union’s institutional structures to implement these policies effectively, too many are still unwilling to accept that national powers can never successfully meet such European challenges. Justice and home affairs will be discussed further in the Convention’s working groups as well as during the Seville European Council in June.

Last Monday the Convention began the preparation meetings for next weeks’ civil society hearings. After the experiences with the Charter of Fundamental Rights hearings, it has been decided to organise this process in a more structured way, setting up eight contact groups on the various policy issues. The European Convention as well as the NGOs themselves now have to prove if they are mature enough for such a political process. The fact that until now, the Convention has neglected almost any involvement from the civil society on the core issue – the institutional debate – is certainly not a positive sign. The next days will also show how far the Contact Group hearings will actually be an open and democratic process, or merely a media event. The first preparatory meetings were not very positive from this perspective (for further information, please see the Press Release issued by the Permanent Forum of Civil Society). Organised civil society on the other hand will have to decide its goals for the Convention. Is it again enough to practise democracy in talking shops or do we actually want to establish democracy in Europe? We risk becoming lost in a policy debate while the Convention comes up with something completely different. At this Convention, NGOs are invited to propose democratic reforms within the Union that also foresees structured NGO involvement in the long term. The central goal has to be to establish an institutional system that allows effective and transparent policy making, as the only way to guarantee influence by civil society on policies that are then implemented effectively. This is why you will find documents by various NGOs on both sides of the European debate in this Bulletin.

One of the growing number of politicians who share this vision and who has a strong opinion on the Union’s institutional future is Cecilia Malmström MEP. We are therefore especially happy to present an interview with her in this weeks’ edition, in which she explains her conviction that the Convention must produce a European Constitution, and her views on what that Constitution should contain. You will also find below her draft European Constitution, a document which has already served to stimulate political debate on the Future of Europe. It is clear that the idea of a European Constitution is one which is increasingly attracting support from across the political spectrum.

This edition also brings you the latest news from the Convention, focusing on the creation of the working groups and the civil society hearings process, as well as contributions from the young Greens and from ETUC Youth.

The next issue of the Bulletin will focus in more detail on the concept of a European Constitution, as well as on the results of next weeks’ NGO hearings. As always, you are very much invited to send us contributions for this issue to info@constitutional-convention.net (deadline for the 10th issue is 26th June). As usual, you can see all articles of this Bulletin in full length on the Constitutional Convention Homepage: www.constitutional-convention.net . If you wish to comment on any articles, feel free to do so in our online-discussion-forum: http://www.constitutional-convention.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi.

Best European greetings,

Your Editors.