Dear Europeans,

After the publication of the first draft for the future constitution by the convention presidium, the discussions on the topics of the convention are really starting in public. The two main institutional questions of the last few weeks: "Will there be a Congress of the People?" and "Do we need an elected President of the Commission?" are tackled in more and more newspapers and public discussions. More and more important politicians and academics are starting to answer the institutional questions. Joschka Fischer again spoke in favour of a Commission President elected by the European Parliament and has also spoken against an intergovernmental Europe. The new Constitution proposal of the EPP is as well as the proposal by Jo Leinen are extremely federal and more and more politicians seem to see this model as the only way forward.

Whereas the debate on a new name for the European Union died before it really started, there are new debates that show that the convention deals with issues that matter to the citizens of Europe. There has been the proposal to include a reference to religion and to Christian values in the constitution, which will be discussed quite heatedly in the following month. The position of Giscard, that Turkey should never become a member of the European Union, was hotly debated.

"Instead of talking about an ever closer Union, we should call it what already many wanted to say in Maastricht: a Federal Union!"
[Klaus Hänsch at the last Convention meeting, Brussels, 8th November 2002]

"Giscard's skeleton is one-legged. It is a Union of states, but the Union of citizens is missing."
[Johannes Voggenhuber at the last Convention meeting, Brussels, 8th November 2002]

"The Union shall exercise certain common competences, in accordance with common values and objectives and in recognition of the diversity of the Union, ON A FEDERAL BASIS."
[Article 56 in the new PPE-Constitution proposal, drafted by Elmar Brok, published 11th November 2002]

In the convention plenary on the 7th and 8th November, the convention members mainly discussed three issues: the structure of the future constitution, the report of the working group "economic governance" and the report of the working group "complementary competences".

GISCARD'S SCELETON IS MISSING ONE LEG
Since there were too many speakers in the previous convention session that wanted to comment on the draft structure of the constitution, Valéry Giscard D’Estaing allowed the remaining speakers from that session to take the floor. The main response to the draft was similar to that of the previous speakers. Olivier Duhamel put the opinion of many convention members in strong words: "If you listened properly, then give up the Congress". He accused Giscard of telling a press conference that there was a majority in the convention demanding a congress, whereas the clear majority of the convention is against such a new institution. He appealed to Giscard to listen to him and shortly later, Johannes Voggenhuber asked Giscard to listen to all convention members. Also convention member Kiljunen mentioned that the draft structure of the constitution leaves out several proposals that are consensus in the convention, whereas it includes other issues not discussed.

This meeting fell within a double context: the follow-up to the White Paper on Youth and a series of sectoral meetings on the future of Europe between NGOs and Commissioners, particularly those taking part in the Convention. It reflected the Commission's willingness to keep in close contact with young people and Youth NGOs.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.This meeting was organised around two main topics: what is the vision of young people on tomorrow's Europe? And what should be their role and their place in this Europe?
Each debate was introduced by two short contributions done by young people themselves (Asa Nilsson, EEE-YFU; Jan Kreutz, JEF; Pascale Boulanger, WOSM; Simon-Erik Ollus, Allianssi).

DEMANDS OF THE YOUTH
- To create a Europe attractive to young people
- A Europe stronger when it comes to the respect of Human Rights, both inside and outside the Union
- A multicultural Europe open to the rest of the world.- A need for more young people to be present in the EU institutions (more young MEPs or young civil servants)

The Young European Federalists welcome the new proposal for a Federal European Constitution by the EPP (European People’s Party). This draft shows that the majority of the convention members inside the EPP have accepted that the only solution for a democratic Europe is a federal model. This is made clear in Article 56 of drafted produced by Elmar Brok MEP which states that the Union has the double legitimacy of its citizens and the member states, and explicitly makes clear that the European Union should develop federal structures.

Alison Weston, president of the Young European Federalists, said: "The EPP has shown once again the demands of a majority of the convention: no to a new institution in form of a congress of the people and no to concentrating executive power in a directly elected head of the Council."

The 5th of November 2002 pupils from Berlin and the region of Brandenburg met in the Abgeordnetenhaus in Berlin to take over the Convention of the future of Europe. For a whole day JEB (the Berlin section of the Young European Federalists) gave them the chance to experience what it means to work on the European Constitution. A similar event takes place every year and is usually a simulation of a European Parliament Session (that´s why is official called SimEP). This year the students were not simulating the parliament but had a even harder job: they were simulating the convention of the future of Europe. As in the “real” convention they took over the role of members of national governments and parliaments of member states and future member states of the EU, as well as of members of the European Parliament. Like in the convention in Brussels, they had a day of hard work so they started early in the morning discussing within their parties about a given resolution.

That´s when the first debates on the wording started and the interest of the students showed that it is much more fun seing how politics work as just watching it on TV. All of them were very active and so the counsellors of JEB, like the new head of JEF Germany Jan Seifert, enjoyed hearing so many ideas and suggestions about the future constitution of Europe. After the lunchbreak the discussion was opened up to all parties. That was when the students all got to sit in the Plenary and fought for their ideas.

- SIXTH CONTRIBUTION OF EWLA ON THE FUTURE OF THE UNION

Following its previous contributions, EWLA would like to draw attention to the following:

I. The «drafting adjustments» proposed by the Working Group «Charter» affect the substance of the Charter and go beyond the competence of the Convention.

1. In its final Report (CONV 354/02), the Working Group «Charter» underlines that «the whole Charter – includng its statements of rights and principles, its preamble and, as a crucial element, its ‘general provisions’ – should be respected by this Convention and not be re-opened by it». Indeed, the Convention’s mandate is to examine only «whether the Charter should be included in the basic Treaty» (Laeken Declaration). The Convention has no competence to re-open the Charter.

2. However, as very knowledgeable members of the group observed, most of the «drafting adjustments» constitute in fact a re-opening of the Charter; they affect its substance and limit its scope . The justification given by the Report is that it was necessary to clarify that the Charter does not modify the allocation of competences between the Union and the Member States. Yet, as Commissioner A. Vitorino has shown very clearly (Working Document 3), the current text of the Charter in no way affects this allocation.

A network of more than 600 NGOs working to combat racism in all the EU member states, the European Network against Racism (ENAR) feels worried by the current controversy over an explicit reference to religion in the future EU constitution.

Pope John Paul II has repeatedly stated that "Europe cannot deny its Christian heritage, since a great part of its achievements in the fields of law, art, literature and philosophy have been influenced by the evangelical message (...) Europe will need to draw inspiration with creative fidelity from the Christian roots that have defined European history."

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

– Discussion Paper –

10 November 2002
(Text of the EPP Convention Group meeting in Frascati)

NOVEMBER
* 21-22, Finland, National Youth Convention organized by Finnish Youth Co-operation, Allianssi and JEF-Finland,
contact: mailto:sari.siikanen@alli.fi

* 23, King’s College, London, “Time to choose? Britain, Europe and America”, 11 am to 4 pm,
http://www.federalunion.org.uk/news/timetochoose.htm

* 30 – 01.12, Bruxelles, JEF Europe large Convention event [tbc]

DECEMBER
* 05-08, Denmark, Danish National Youth Convention (DVF),
contact:mailto:info@youropa.dk

* 06-08, France, Strasbourg, 14èmes Entretiens de Strasbourg : « La Convention, un tournant pour l’UE ? », 14. Straßburger Gespräche zum Thema „Durchbruch für die EU mit dem Konvent“,
info: jestrasbourg@yahoo.fr & info@jef-bw.de

* 14-22, Austria, Vienna, „Individual Security – A European Issue“, Europe Center Vienna/JEF-Vienna, contact: mailto:europazentrum@citizens.eu.org

2003

MARCH
* 23-29, Czech Rep., Prag, JEF Europe International Seminar and Federal Committee, mailto:info@jef-europe.net