Dear Europeans,

We are getting closer to a finalized European Constitution. Yesterday and today the Convention members have discussed more than 1000 amendments to the first 16 paragraphs of the future Constitution. Today new articles will be presented, which again will lead to numerous amendments. While the work of the Convention is getting more concrete, the differences between the Convention members grow. Whereas the majority of the Convention members want to include the Charter at the beginning of the Convention and want to keep the expression "federal" in the Constitution, a number of members strongly object to these proposals.

Although there are many amendments, an agreement is not impossible. Many of the amendments are similar or even identical. Therefore it will be crucial that the Convention members group together and hand in common positions. Yesterday there was a first step: the two big parties pooled some of their speaking time and presented common positions. This procedure does not only accelerate the Convention procedure but it will also bring us closer to working European Party structures.

In this context it will also be crucial to look at the timetable of the Convention. Although a possible war in Iraq will influence the work of the Convention, it is highly unlikely that it will lead to halt of the Convention’s work. Nevertheless the Convention has already fallen behind its timetable. If Giscard d'Estaing wants to present a finalized Constitution - including the second part on policies - by the end of June, the work will have to be accelerated. There is also the proposal of several future member states to postpone the Inter Governmental Conference until April 2004. This would mean that it will be impossible to create any kind of link between the European Parliament elections and the European Constitution - be it a ratification procedure or an election of Parliamentarians on the basis of their position on this constitution.

In the interview with Jürgen Meyer you will find interesting ideas on some of these questions. This Convention Bulletin also includes a wide variety of positions of the civil society, Youth Organisations and JEF. Several articles also show that the Youth Convention members in Europe and in member states are still active and that young citizens are eager to contributes to the debates.

In order to follow up this interesting debate on the articles, we will have another chat on Monday, 3rd March 7 PM, on: http://www.constitutional-convention.net/ (link on the top of the page).

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the bulletin, send your contribution to mailto:info@constitutional-convention.net (deadline for the 24th issue is 11th March). As usual, you can see all articles of this Bulletin in full length at: http://www.constitional-convention.net/

Best European greetings,

Your Editors.