Dear Europeans,

Although we know that to most of you, the situation in Iraq is more important than the Convention, we would like to present to you the next edition of the Constitutional Convention Bulletin. We believe that at a time where international diplomacy has failed once again, it is even more important to work on a project overcoming national divisions and creating a supranational democracy. The Convention members seem to be of the same opinion and do everything other than slowing down the constitutional train.

„It is much less clear whether the Greek presidency will propose an extra Convention summit. The European Council will take place on 21-22 June and the date being voiced for the extra Summit is just a week later - June 30. "This is very much up in the air," said a Greek diplomat.

The idea was originally proposed by Mr Giscard who suggested that something as important as a constitution should not just be tacked on to the end of an already full agenda at the Thessaloniki Summit.

The Convention President, under fierce time pressure, let it be known recently that he would prefer to have a few more months to work on the constitution.

So far, this has not been taken up member states. Governments are set to reply to the Greek presidency's questions within the next few days.“

[From EU-observer, 24th March 2003, by Lisbeth Kirk.]

1. Is there any specific Czech national interest being put through by the Czech delegation in the European Convention?

The main idea of the Convention is to bring forward all relevant political thoughts concerning the future of Europe. Not only of representatives of the governments in office, but also from the opposition. The Czech political parties decided that the structure of the delegation should represent all main Czech political streams. The government representative follows the social democratic point of view. However, the chambers of Parliament decided to choose also Mr.Zahradil, who as a member of the opposition, can be regarded as having a non-socialist view, therefore euro-sceptic. I was delegated to represent the non-socialist but pro-European faction. Since we all have different views and opinions, the Czech delegation cannot have a uniform position. Still, this doesn’t mean, that in some cases concerning national interests we don’t share common opinion. On the contrary, in problems in which we share a common attitude, we work on a common coordinated policy.

Article 31: Implementation of the area of freedom, security and justice

1. The Union shall ensure an area of freedom, security and justice:
– by adopting laws and framework laws intended in particular to approximate national laws in the areas listed in Part Two of the Constitution;
– by promoting mutual confidence between the competent authorities of the Member States, in particular on the basis of mutual recognition of judicial and extrajudicial decisions.
– by operational cooperation between all competent authorities of the Member States for internal security.

2. Within the area of freedom, security and justice, national parliaments may participate in the evaluation mechanisms foreseen in Article [4, Part Two] of the Constitution, and shall be involved in the political monitoring of Europol's activities in accordance with Article [Article 22, Part Two) of the Constitution.

3. In the field of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters, Member States shall have a right of initiative under the arrangements set out in Article [8, Part Two] of the Constitution.

To see all articles and comments of the presidium, click: http://european-convention.eu.int/docs/Treaty/cv00614.en03.pdf.

To see amendments to these articles click: http://european-convention.eu.int/amendments.asp?content=31)#=EN.

Article 38: The Union's resources

Without prejudice to other revenue, the Union's budget shall be financed wholly from own resources.
The Council, acting unanimously on a proposal from the Commission and after consulting the European Parliament, shall lay down provisions relating to the system of own resources of the Union, which it shall recommend to the Member States for adoption in accordance with their respective constitutional requirements.

DEBATE ON THE AMENDMENTS TO ARTICLES 8 TO 16 OF THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION

Following the plenary session on 28 February dealing with Articles 8 to 16 of the draft Constitution and the amendments tabled by Convention members, the latter continued their discussions during an additional session chaired by Mr Giuliano Amato, Vice-Chairman of the Convention. The morning discussions were structured around Articles 8 and 9 on principles, and the afternoon discussions around the other Articles on competences.

Articles 8 and 9: principles and application of principles

Source of competences

1. Some Convention members emphasised that the Articles on competences (starting with Article 8(2) on the principle of conferral) should state that it was the Member States and not the Constitution that conferred competences. The reference to the Constitution should therefore be preceded by the preposition "in" (or "in accordance with the provisions of") rather than "by". Others pointed out that the current Treaties already contained the expression "powers conferred upon it by this Treaty" (see, for example, Article 5(1) of the TEC) and saw no reason to change it since the Constitution formally remained a Treaty.

To see the full report, click: http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/03/cv00/cv00624en03.pdf.

1. Convention members will find attached the report by the working party of experts nominated by the Legal Services of the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission with a view to making technical adjustments to EC and EU Treaty provisions for insertion into Part Two of the Constitutional Treaty.

This is a purely technical exercise which is intended to facilitate the political discussion without prejudging or influencing the Convention's decisions.

1. The Praesidium has noted that the Laeken declaration, which provides the framework for the Convention's proceedings, does not mention the Euratom Treaty, or raise questions relating specifically to the areas covered by that Treaty. However, some of the written contributions concerning that Treaty also contain suggestions for amendments of substance, and other members of the Convention have said that they are against any initiative to revise the substance of the Treaty.

SUMMARY SHEET OF THE PROPOSALS FOR AMENDMENTS TO THE PROTOCOL ON THE ROLE OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN THE EUROPEAN UNION (CONV 579/03, ANNEX III)

I. Analysis of amendments by theme - summary

1. Four main themes emerge among the proposed amendments to the Protocol on the role of national parliaments in the European Union:

a) The role of national parliaments and the manner in which it is reflected in the protocol as well as the way in which the national parliaments are involved in the activities of the Union;
- The issues raised concern the way in which the role of national parliaments in the life of the Union in general is reflected in the protocol as well as the specific roles that national parliaments should assume. In the second case, the inclusion of several additional roles are proposed, such as the right to comment on substance of legislative proposals in addition to the specific issue of subsidiarity, the organisation of debates on the annual work programme, and the preparation and ratification of amendments to the Constitution. Proposed amendments also concern the definition of national parliaments in the context of the protocol and include proposals for references to each chamber as well as the sub-national level (regions with legislative powers).

ANALYSIS OF COMMENTS ON OR PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO THE DRAFT PROTOCOL ON THE APPLICATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF SUBSIDIARITY AND PROPORTIONALITY (CONV 579/02)

I. Summary analysis of amendments by subject

The Praesidium's proposal to the Convention is based on the report from Working Group I (CONV 286/02) and the report on discussions in the plenary (CONV 331/02). On the whole, the Protocol on subsidiarity was well received by Convention members. Few radically questioned the Praesidium draft. In fact, very many Convention members saw no need to comment on or amend the draft Protocol.

The main amendments proposed concern the following six subjects:
(a) the term "national parliament", with an active minority continuing to prefer an arrangement whereby, in States with bicameral parliaments, each of the two chambers should be able to trigger the early-warning system directly. There are a number of amendments along these lines, some of which include an ingenious device to ensure that the preferred arrangement does not place States with unicameral parliaments at a disadvantage (two votes for a unicameral parliament and one vote for each chamber of a bicameral parliament);

ANALYSIS OF ALL THE AMENDMENTS

The Convention members have presented 237 amendments to draft Articles 24 to 33.

First of all it should be borne in mind that many of these amendments have across-the-board impact and concern the names of the legal instruments or of the Constitution, the addition of a new instrument (e.g. organic law, directive) or the definition of a certain instrument (e.g. restricting the use of regulations to delegated acts or giving them legislative character). Such amendments, which
are very numerous, concern a limited range of subjects.

The issues which attracted the most amendments are as follows:

Contribution by Members and Alternate Members of the Convention:
Mr Lamberto Dini, Mr Andrew Duff, Ms Lone Dybkjaer, Mr Henning Christophersen, Mr Willem van Eekelen, Lord Robert MacLennan of Rogart, Mr Agirdas Gricius, Mr Jelko Kacin, Mrs Androula Vassiliou, Mr Gintautas Sivickas, Filadelfio Basile, Hubert Haenel, Marco Follini, Antonio Tajani, Gianfranco Fini, Valdo Spini, Elena Paciotti, Olivier Duhamel, Alain Lamassoure, Pervenche Beres, Jurgen Meyer, Mr Alejandro Muñoz Alonso and Cristiana Muscardini.

THE CONVENTION AND THE TIMETABLE OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE

The Convention should rise to the historical challenge before us: to give Europe an organic Constitution. While positively assessing the progress made so far and the achievements of the Convention, which set off taking long and careful heed of civil society, we would like to emphasize that it is important that the work of the Convention be concluded in June 2003, as planned, with the submission of the draft Constitutional Treaty to the European Council shortly thereafter.

The Intergovernmental Conference (IGC), with the full participation on equal footing of the ten candidate countries, should time its proceedings so as to ensure that citizens electing the European Parliament in 2004 have full knowledge of the Constitutional Treaty approved by the IGC and signed also by the Union's ten new member States.
We must be aware that failure to keep to this agenda might undermine the ratification process of the Constitutional Treaty, which should not overlap with the important financial negotiations in 2006.

Lamberto Dini, Andrew Duff

March 18, 2003

The European integration process is rooted in the values, fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights is a unique expression of European identity. It is proof that the European Union is something far more than an economic community, that it is a community united by the shared values of the countries and peoples of Europe.

To the citizens of Europe the Charter is confirmation that in this integrating community to which they belong they have not only duties but also rights. Hence the Charter has a key role to play in helping Europe's citizens identify with the Union.

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, BRUSSELS
About 10 Convention members attended the meeting. There was general agreement that draft article 24, in particular, creates a great deal of confusion and legal uncertainty. P. BALAZS, A. DUFF (EP, ELDR, UK) and A. LAMASSOURE criticised that some legal acts, such as ‘regulations’, carry the same names as in the previous Treaties while they, in fact, are different. As regards the ratification of the future Constitutional Treaty, A. DUFF stated that it should come into force as soon as a certain number of member states, possibly 20-21 states, have ratified it. In this way, member states facing ratification difficulties would not be able to block it.

INTRODUCTION:

ECOSY welcomes the work of the European Convention. On the eve of enlargement and in a period of an increasing number of international crisis, increasing unemployment and an ever lower social standards for the citizens of Europe, it is the Conventions task to arrive to at a real federal constitution for a social Europe. No national state will be able to respond to the challenges of globalisation on its own. If the problems of today's Europe are to be faced effectively then the citizens of Europe must act together in a more democratic Europe, with a constitution that also addresses the issue of institutional effectiveness.
ECOSY criticises the current proposals of the convention and gives new proposals in the following areas;

Den Konvent zum Geburtsort einer europäischen Demokratie machen!
Berliner Appell für ein föderales Europa

2003 stehen mit der Unterzeichnung der Beitrittsverträge und der Vorlage eines Verfassungsentwurfs durch den Europäischen Konvent historische Weichenstellungen für die Europäische Integration an. Die erweiterte Union bedarf jedoch nicht nur institutioneller Reformen für größere Leistungsfähigkeit sondern auch einer demokratischen Neubegründung. Als Union der Staaten und der Bürger soll die Europäische Union zum Fixpunkt einer politischen Antwort auf wirtschaftliche Globalisierung, Bedrohungen internationaler Sicherheit und Umweltzerstörung werden. Europa als politisches Projekt baut auf der kreativen Mitwirkung seiner Bürger auf. Dazu bedarf es einer Verfassung, die Entscheidungsverfahren transparent, subsidiär und für Bürger zugänglich macht. Europäische Politik soll im Interesse der Bürger stehen, effizient in ihrer Ausführung und den Bürgern gegenüber verantwortlich sein.

Pressemitteilung

12. März 2003

Europäischer Kartellverband: „Gottesbezug soll in europäischer Verfassung verankert werden“

EKV-Präsident Eitzinger spricht sich für eine vollständige Ablösung des Einstimmigkeitsprinzips und gegen den deutsch-französischen Vorschlag einer europäischen Doppelspitze aus

„Es ist zu begrüßen, dass die Charta der Grundrechte der Europäischen Union in eine zukünftige europäische Verfassung integriert werden soll und damit ein weiterer Schritt Richtung Werte- und Grundrechtsgemeinschaft getan wird.“
Johannes Eitzinger, Präsident des Europäischen Kartellverbandes Christlicher Studentenverbände (EKV), zeigt sich mit den Entwicklungen, wie sie sich am Konvent zur Zukunft Europas abzeichnen, zufrieden. Eitzinger plädiert aber eindringlich dafür, die Charta der Grundrechte an hervorgehobener Stelle in die Konstitution zu integrieren und nicht nur als Protokoll anzuhängen.

Catalunya i Europa

Europa és alhora una realitat i un repte. Com a realitat, la Unió Europea és el millor exponent de la voluntat dels europeus de dei-xar enrere les experiències negatives del pas-sat, tot marcant un abans i un després en la història dels pobles que conviuen en el conti-nent. La Unió Europea és la culminació actual d’un procés que s’iniciava després de la Sego-na Guerra Mundial, per mitjà del qual s’ha aconseguit que països tradicionalment enfrontats no visquin d’esquenes els uns als altres i que encarin el futur amb una clara voluntat de subratllar els punts de coincidèn-cia per sobre de les divergències. Els resultats d’aquest procés són plenament tangibles. Els ciutadans europeus d’avui gaudeixen d’un període de pau, estabilitat i benestar com mai Europa havia tingut en la seva llarga història.

To read the full document (in Catalan), read: http://www.convenciocatalana.org/cat/conclusions/80_propostes_versio_llibre.pdf

In our Statement to the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Club of Rome emphasized that “governance frameworks must be redesigned such that everyone can benefit from growth”. Little progress was made in Johannesburg on reform of the global governance frameworks: the UN bodies and Bretton-Woods institutions. However, the enlargement of the European Union and the debate in the Convention on the Future of Europe provide both an opportunity for change, and an example of how change can be brought about.