Dear Europeans,

Although there has not been a convention plenary since the last bulletin, there are several news from the convention. The key issue in the convention debate is, whether the president of the EU should be the president of the European Council or the president of the European Convention. In order to arrive to a democratic system, the federalist movements have long demanded to elect the president of the commission through the European Parliament and thus ensure a democratic control of the government of the European Union. Although the German government seems to support an elected head of the European Council, they are still demanding a strong and well legitimized European Commission. We have included the essential parts of the coalition agreement to underline these demands.

This bulletin also includes several new ideas of convention members, which have been raised in the previous two weeks. Further we report from the Latvian National Convention, which is an excellent example on how to involve the public in the convention debate.

"German socialist MEP, Jo Leinen, accused the Convention president of 'hi-jacking the Convention' to 'impose' his own ideas. He said Mr Giscard was trying to undermine the role of the European parliament and the Commission by 'strongly favouring' the council. The final European constitution, he added, should 'reflect the debates of the vast majority and not just a single member of the Convention.'"
[...]
His comments were backed up by Alison Weston, president of the Young European Federalists, a linked but independent organisation, who claimed: 'the only way for the European Union to be effective is if (the Commission), taking decisions in the interests of the whole of Europe, is firmly held to account by the parliament.'"

In: "EU Federalists hit back at Giscard", euobserver.com, 09.10.2002.

1. What are your hopes and fears about the Convention process in general?

The experiences of the Intergovernmental Conference in Nice, which in many points merely produced solutions which represented the smallest common denominator, showed that the current procedure, where treaty amendments are negotiated behind closed doors by government representatives, has reached its limits. That is why we, together with others, initiated the convention process. Its aim was to include the vari-ous institutions with democratic legitimacy - the European Parliament, national par-liaments, governments and the Commission - in the reform process from the outset. The success of the Convention's work so far would appear to show that this approach was right.

2. What is your assessment of its work so far?

Both the plenary meetings and the working groups have worked very successfully to date. Naturally, the controversial key issues cannot be negotiated until the Con-vention's final phase. In some difficult areas, however, we have already come sur-prisingly far, e.g. in the question of a single legal personality. I believe that the Con-vention's work during the first few months has been impressive.

The public debate on the European Constitution more and more focuses on the crucial question on who should lead the government of the future European Union.

Many proposals are currently discussed inside and outside of the Constitutional Convention. Some voices propose giving the heads of state or government the right to nominate a European President. Others want to give the member states’ parliaments a say in electing the head of the EU executive. In some of these proposals the Commission is reduced to a mere technical Secretariat of the political executive.

The Union of European Federalists thinks that these proposals are going in the wrong direction and will enlarge the gap between the European Union and the Union citizens.

The Latvian National Convention on the Future of Europe aims to inform the public about the European Convention, as well as contribute to the ongoing public discussion about the European Union and the future of Europe after the Union's enlargement. The National Convention prepares non-binding guidelines for Latvia's representatives at the European Convention.
The National Convention is open to all interested persons. The sessions of the Convention are broadcast live on Radio Latvia 1.
Latvia's Prime Minister Andris Berzins and the President of the European Movement - Latvia Ainars Dimants preside over the Convention's sessions. Representatives of Latvia at the European Convention (Minister for Special Assignment for Cooperation with International Financial Agencies Roberts Zile, Deputy Speaker of the Parliament Rihards Piks, Chairman of the European Affairs Committee of the Parliament Edvins Inkens, and their alternates: Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament Guntars Krasts, members of the European Affairs Committee Maris Sprindzuks and Inese Birzniece) take an active part in the organisation and discussions of the National Convention.

To read the Article see:
http://ue.eu.int/pressdata/EN/discours/72749.pdf

EXPOSE DES MOTIFS

L’Union européenne est une construction politique particulièrement originale en ce qui concerne le type de relations existantes entre les Etats membres et l’Union qu’ils composent.
Divers articles des traités ont essayé d’esquisser une liste des droits et des devoirs des Etats. A l’occasion de l’élaboration d’un traité constitutionnel, d’une définition plus claire des compétences, et de la consécration du principe de subsidiarité, il paraît opportun de rassembler dans un paragraphe de synthèse, en tout début de document, les principes qui doivent guider les relations entre l’Union et les Etats membres.

The European Youth Forum welcomes the European Commission’s endorsement of a consolidated legal basis for EU action in favour of young people in the future Constitutional treaty.
Brussels, Tuesday 15th October- In a meeting with the European Youth Forum in Brussels on Monday, Commissioners Viviane Reding and Michel Barnier discussed European youth policies in the context of the ongoing work of the Convention on the Future of Europe.
At the meeting, representatives from several youth NGOs and National Youth Councils suggested including a better youth article in the future EU treaty, thereby giving the EU a complementary competence to support the actions of Member States in the field of youth. They underlined the need to consolidate current EU youth policies and programmes by adopting a clear article on youth. Commissioner Reding agreed with the youth representatives that the existing legal basis should be consolidated.
Both Commissioners considered dialogue and co-operation with youth associations to be of paramount importance in the debate on the Future of Europe and for the outcome of the Convention.

On monday the 14th October there has been a meeting between representatives of the Eyruopean Youth Forum, the Youth Contact Group, several representatives of youth organisations and the two Commissioners Viviane Reding and Michel Barnier. The discussion focused on the two topics "The Vision of Young People on Tomorrow's Future" and "The Place of Young Citizens Within a New Institutional Design". After the youth representatives gave four presentations of their positions (Asa Nilsson, EEE-YFU; Jan Kreutz, JEF; Pascal Boulanger, WOSM; Simon-Erik Ollus, Allianssi) there was a discussion with the commissioners.

One of the main topics was the participation of young people in the politics of the Union. The youth-representatives demanded the two commissioners two have youth policy as a complementary competence of the Union and to include in the second part of the constitutional treaty an article on youth. The Youth Forum also presented a draft of this article, which they forwarded to the European Commission.

Another demand towards to Commission was to take the proposal of the Youth Convention seriously.

released on Wednesday, 16/10/02

The Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) express their strong opposition to proposals by Professor Alan Dashwood of Cambridge University, implicitly endorsed by British Minister for Europe Peter Hain, for a constitutional order for the European Union which its author claims is 'anti-federal'.

Reacting to the release of the draft by Professor Dashwood, Alison Weston, President of JEF-Europe stated: "These proposals do nothing but seek to turn the clock back to the 1970s when the then European Economic Community's political role was stagnant and limited."

released on Tuesday 08.10.02

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's recent comments calling for a 'halt to federalism' are typical proposals from the President of the European Convention. This is another case of identifying the major problem - the complexity of the European Union - yet proposing nothing more than an intergovernmental solution.

"The major decisions in economic and foreign policy have unfortunately always been made through cooperation between the European Union's governments" stated Alison Weston, President of the Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe).

The first attempt to raise the voice of young people of Europe during the last summer has echoed also in Latvian youth. JEF Latvia together with the European Youth Convention Delegates and participants of “Youth 2002” has showed the initiative to organize the National Youth Convention in January 2003 - to discover the values and beliefs of young people in Latvia. This project has been set prior to promote discussions on the future of Europe among young people and encourage broader interest in European issues among the society in general. The result of the Latvian Youth Convention will be a non-binding document for the Latvian delegation at the European Convention. The event is put in time frame in between the second and the third sessions of the Latvian National Convention on the future of Europe, which consists of representatives from different governmental institutions, NGOs, entrepreneurs and other persons interested in creating ideological basis for the further integration of Europe.
JEF Latvia (in Latvia known as Club “The House”) was founded 7 years ago as the first non-governmental organization dealing with European issues, and still is the only youth NGO which educates people on EU matters and shares the responsibility in providing information and promoting understanding in the society. As the organization was established, its main aim was to support the integration process in Latvia, to guide the young people towards tolerance and pluralism, and most importantly towards Latvia joining EU. Currently there are more than two hundred members and around 400 hundred supporters, who are spread all over the country. The strong role of the organization in promoting willingness to contribute to the future debate is proved by the fact that every third applicant of the open competition for European Youth Convention was a member of JEF Latvia and finally two out of five chosen Latvian delegates are members of the organization.

Discussions on the future of EU and the future of Latvia in the EU can contribute to our common understanding that it is necessary and worthy for Latvia to join the EU. However it is essential to end with the discussion – do we need to join, but go over with the item – how would we act in this future Europe, how would we represent our interests – national and common European for joining the EU strong and able to make use of it. The discussion of this kind will assist to make the choice for joining the EU.
The European Movement Latvia sees the future of three kinds. First, we are sure of the union of nation states, of the EU as a Europe of nations, because we are already following the thoughts of the Latvian poet Rainis expressed in the times of the First World War, who in that time discussions about Europe put forward an idea that the way of Latvia, the way of Latvians to Europe is leading through being Latvian and through Latvia as a nation state – through nation state to federal Europe. Consequently we are devoted to the thoughts of the first statesman of Latvia and follow his idea of Europe.

The Future of Europe:the European Convention facing the constitutional choice

Brussels, 14 October 2002

The European Convention - established after the European Council in December 2001 – needs a crucial orientation on the far-reaching decisions of its results, in order to provide an answer to the numerous questions on the future of Europe written in the Laeken Declaration. The Convention has to choose among different models for the enlarged Union. Within this Union, a multicultural group of countries will live together, becoming a political entity with no comparisons in the rest of the world.

The way towards a constitutional treaty

There is a large consensus within the Convention to achieve as final result a Constitutional-treaty that can become the basis for the enlarged Union provided with a legal personality, which will replace the current legal status of the existing European Communities. This Constitutional treaty will be composed of:

For the full text, please click here to download the PDF file.

PROCLAMATION OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

INTRODUCTION

The text that follows is designed to provide a short, clear and, it is hoped, inspiring answer to the questions: what is the European Union for, and – constitutionally speaking – what sort of animal is it?

Formally, the text is presented as a Proclamation of the Constitutional Treaty, which could be identified in the Amending Treaty as the event which, following ratification, will bring the new order into existence. This seems preferable to presentation as a Preamble to the Constitutional Treaty itself, which would be required to follow the traditional structure of a series of recitals constituting a single long sentence.

You can see the full constitution proposal (only in spanish) on:
http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/de/02/cv00/00329d2.pdf