20 November 2003

Parliaments should adopt a list of minimal requirements for the IGC
During their meeting in Strassbourg on 19th November, members of the Integroup "European Constitution" in the European Parliament strongly criticised the work of the intergovernmental conference (IGC). So far, all proposals of national governments had been aiming at reducing the consensus reached in the Convention. The members of the European Parliament expressed their deepest disappointment that no single proposal had been made to achieve further progress in European integration.

The "European spirit" which had characterised the debates in the Convention is under threat from an egoist "national spirit" in the intergovernmental conference. The trust in European politics which had been built by the work of the Convention risked being lost again now because of the intergovernmental conference.The intergroup called on the national Parliaments and the European Parliament to adopt a catalogue of minimal requirements during their joint meeting in Brussels on December 5th, and to forward it to the IGC.

Among these requirements, the following should be included according to the Parliamentarians:

- the realisation of European democracy by means of protecting the rights of the European Parliament in the budgetary procedure, in legislation, in the control of the executive and in the process for amending the Constitution.

- the creation of an efficient European Union which means no reduction of the areas under qualified majority voting (qmv) or the "passerelles" which allow areas under unanimity to qmv.

- flexibility for the revision of the Constitution, in particular part III

The Intergroup reminds the intergovernmental conference that the Parliaments will have to ratify the Constitution and that for this reason the trust between the institutions on the basis of the consensus which had been jointly elaborated in the Convention must not be breached.

The Intergroup European Constitution unites about 230 deputies from the six major political groups within the European Parliament.

Contact: Office of Jo LEINEN (MEP), tel : 0032 2 284 7842