Following I would like to sum up the Convention meetings on 15th and 16th Mai 2003. After discussing the institutions of the Union the entire Thursday and als Friday morning, the Convention also focused on questions of a Common Foreign and Security Policy and Defence and Security Policy. The results in short: many well known arguments have been exchange, little new proposals have been put forward and compromise has been offered only occasionally.

1. Institutions

The eight hour discussion on institutions focused primarly on three issues: size of the Commission, president or presidency of the European Council and the voting procedures in these two institutions. Looking at the atmosphere of the Convention meeting it was quite striking, that most of the Convention members are not ready to agree to minimal compromises, despite the fact that the Convention has little more than one month to complete its work.The only substantial compromise proposal, the only sign of moving towards a common position was coming from the BeNeLux countries. This proposal was partly supported by Germany and many “small” countries. Giuliano Amato commented this atmosphere in a press release: “If the Convention members want to be funding members of something, they have to start to agree on some issues.”

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By: Jan Kreutz
Vice President JEF-Europe;
Contact: jan.kreutz@jef-europe.net