EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - "They're pouring in," admits the spokesperson for the Convention's steering committee, the presidium. The 13-member body putting together the articles for a future EU constitution has been inundated with over 1000 amendments to the first 16 draft articles.

Presented to Convention members two weeks ago, delegates are continuing to submit proposals for changes even after the deadline of last Monday evening.

Anxious to play down the enormous logistical burden this means, spokesman Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut said that "numerically" this is "not very important." He stressed that for the overwhelming majority, the "presidium's text remains the basis for work."

Flowing ink
Suggestions for changes touch on all manner of subjects, from mentioning the rights of indigenous people, to asking for more social Europe, to questioning the role of the regions to suggestions about how to draft legal articles.

Article one alone has elicited huge response on whether people, citizens or just nation states should be mentioned. The exact meaning of 'federal' has also caused much ink to flow.

Currently the French MEP William Abitol is one of the very few suggesting a completely different structure to that proposed by the presidium.

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