Dear Europeans,

The Project “European Constitution” has entered a new phase. In Thessaloniki, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing handed over the Constitution to the heads of state and government. The fate of the European Union is now up to their political will and their courage to agree to the Constitutional proposal made by the Convention.

One thing has been made clear in Thessaloniki: although the heads of state and government accept the Constitution as a ‘good basis’ for starting the IGC, they reserve the right to make ‘corrections’ to the result of the Convention. Although Greek Prime Minister Simitis stated in the press conference that the institutional balance will not be affected, it will be difficult to keep this promise as the provisions which are most likely to be revised will concern the institutions. Although Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, was less critical about the outcome of Giscard’s Convention, he has also criticized what he sees as its shortcomings, especially concerning qualified majority voting. A more detailed briefing on the European Council meeting can be found in this bulletin.

Whether these shortcomings can be addressed in the last two final Convention sessions on Part 3 of the Constitution is still undecided. Whereas the Commission spoke of substantial changes to Part 3 which still needed to be done, VGE talked about technical changes only. The next bulletin will keep you updated on the results achieved.

The European Council also clarified the timetable: the IGC should be as short as possible but no longer than until spring 2004. The result of the IGC should be put forward to European citizens before the elections to the European Parliament in June 2004. Many NGOs have already commented on the outcome and take a quite diverse view on the Convention’s results. Some of these positions can be read in this bulletin.

If you would like to contribute to the next edition of the bulletin, send your contribution to mailto:convention@jef-europe.net (deadline for the 23rd issue is 9 July). As usual, you can read all articles of this Bulletin in full length on the Constitutional Convention Homepage: http://www.constitutional-convention.net.

Best European greetings,

Editor in chief.