6. December 2003

The Federal Council of the International European Movement, meeting in Rome on December 6th, 2003 noted that the work of the ICG has confirmed that the IEM was justified in demanding the replacement – for the elaboration of the European Constitution and its future reforms - of the intergovernmental process of the organisation of the ICG with that of the Convention.

Bequeathed with considerable legitimacy through the participation of the national parliaments and the European Parliament, as well as from the governments of the member states of the Commission, the significant developments of the Draft Constitution – most notably the binding characteristic of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, progress in transparency and democracy in the elaboration of European laws and in the election of the President of the Commission, the success of a Constitutional text, in a coherent language and comprehensible to citizens, the clarification of that which the Union must do, and that which States must carry out, and the primacy of community law – were drawn from the ICG.
Other advances concerning a permanent, structured co-operation, open in regards to defence issues, the extension of the communitarian procedure in the domain of Justice and Home Affairs, the confirmation of a
European Minister for Foreign Affairs and other institutional aspects (the composition of the Commission, minimum number of parliamentary seats held by the smaller member states and the organisation of criteria
for the rotation of the Presidency of the Council) can and must be introduced on the basis of the draft Constitution of the Convention.

Read the full appeal on-line:
http://www.europeanmovement.org/downloads/resolution_igc_en.pdf