After sixteen month of negotiations, the Constitutional Convention has concluded its work. In this bulletin you will find the final proposal of the Convention for a treaty establishing the European Constitution. Also included are VGE’s concluding remarks in the last Convention session. In addition you can find several demands of NGOs for last minute changes of the final result. Since there were hardly any changes accepted in the final Convention session, most of these demands have remained unanswered.

Looking back on years of debates about the “Future of Europe”, we have to agree that the Constitutional Convention has achieved more than most optimists expected. The new “treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe” is shorter and simpler than the current treaties. The new provisions concerning competences, institutions and Union policies also provide a framework for a more democratic, transparent and efficient Europe, as demanded in the Laeken declaration.

Nevertheless, all of us know that with the end of the Convention we are still a long way from the end of European integration. In the future, many additional steps will be necessary to achieve a real democratic and federal Constitution. First, the new constitutional provisions need to be implemented. This is only possible if a new European constitutional spirit will develop amongst the Union citizens and politicians. It is up to all of us to explain the Constitution to the citizens of the Union and help them accept it as Europe’s ‘house rules’.

JEF will play it’s role in this process. This bulletin will not be the last edition. From the early Autumn we will continue sending out newsletters, which will inform you of the developments within the IGC and ratification processes in the member states. It will stay closely linked to a website, informing you about the latest developments concerning the European Constitution as well as giving NGOs from all over Europe a platform for publishing their opinions. You are welcome to send us your contributions to mailto:convention@jef-europe.net. As usual, you can read all articles of this Bulletin in full length on the Constitutional Convention Website: http://www.constitutional-convention.net

Best European greetings,

Editor in chief

“It has been a privilege for me to chair your debates. In one's life, one is, if one is lucky, permitted once or twice to make a difference, to touch the hem of history. Together we have had that chance. Together we have taken it. We should all be proud of that. And, as your chairman and spokesman, I feel pride in what we have done together, thanks to you. So my last word is of warm gratitude to you and a touch of melancholy to be deprived of our regular meetings. Our debates are over : the Convention is closed.”

[Closing speech of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Chairman of the Constitutional Convention, 10th July 2003.]

By completing Part 3 and Part 4 of the Constitution, the Convention has finished its work.

To see the final proposal of the Convention for a treaty establishing the European Constitution, click:
http://european-convention.eu.int/docs/Treaty/cv00850.en03.pdf

On the last Convention session on 10th July 2003 VGE delivered his closing speech to the Convention members.

Excerpts:
Permit me one final word, ŕ titre personnel. I wish to pay tribute to you, the Conventionnels.
You have proved that the Convention method works. You have ensured, by our success, that the Convention method lasts.
We have succeeded because we have listened to each other, in our initial phase d'écoute.
We have succeeded because we have learned from each other. Learned from working with each other, in our working groups, our cercles de discussion, our Praesidium.
Coming from different backgrounds, countries, institutions, we have come to understand each other, to narrow areas of disagreement, to identify solutions acceptable to all.

To read the entire speech (partly in French, partly in English), click: Updated explanations relating to the text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights

Members of the Convention will find attached, for information, the updated explanations relating to the text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, produced under the authority of the Chairman of Working Group II and endorsed by the Praesidium.

To read the explanations, click: http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/03/cv00/cv00828en03.pdf

Following you can read an interesting summary of Peter Norman (Financial Times) on the Convention. In his 20 pages paper he gives an interesting insight into the Convention’s work.

Excerpts:

Introduction

Consensus came on June 13 – a remarkable and unexpected achievement when compared with the bleak scenario ten days before which was described in the previous briefing note.

At the start of the month, the Convention’s Praesidium was paralysed and a large majority of member state representatives were in open revolt over the plans of its president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing to scrap the complex Nice Treaty agreements over qualified majority voting (QMV) in the council of ministers, the future structure of the Commission and the sharing out of seats in the European Parliament.

On June 13, sipping warm Bollinger champagne to the strains of the EU anthem - Beethoven’s Ode to Joy - the “conventionnels” could toast their success in producing a single constitutional text without options to put to EU leaders at their summit in Thessaloniki a week later. A palpable sense of satisfaction suffused the plenary hall of the European Parliament building in Brussels as Convention members outbid each other to hail their achievement with statements as contrived as they were sincere. “Today is Friday 13,” declared Alojz Peterle, one of the Slovenian parliament’s conventionnels and a Praesidium member. “But it is not black Friday. Indeed, it is one of the brightest days that Europe has ever seen”…

To read the entire summary, http://www.constitutional-convention.net/bulletin/achives/p_normal_brief.pdf

The final draft of the new EU constitution, to be endorsed by the Convention plenary Thursday 10 July, reinforces the EU’s commitment to young people’s participation in democratic life. “This is a very positive development and we congratulate the Convention Presidium on this decision. It follows calls for a consolidated treaty base for youth participation from youth organisations, the Youth Convention and the amendment that we put forward,” said Giacomo Filibeck in reaction to the new draft of Article 177 (Part III of the Constitution). He recalled that already the Laeken European Council had stressed the need to bring the citizens, particularly the young, closer to the European design.

Members of the European convention have their last chance to make amendments to the draft constitution this week. They have achieved much in the last sixteen months, but there are still a few things to be done. And after the Convention has concluded, there are some very great things to be done.
Let us look into the future first, and then return to the present.

After the Convention has concluded, the final draft text will be forwarded to the heads of government in the IGC. They have the task of turning the text into a new treaty, which will in turn establish a constitution for Europe. It is a daunting task even to type these words, let alone to contemplate the creation of that constitution. But it is also an essential task.

It is important that the IGC does not try to reopen the debates of the last few months and renegotiate the contents of the draft text. What kind of wisdom will be visited upon the national governments in the next few months that has not already been displayed by them?

Members of the European Convention have their last chance to make amendments to the draft Constitution today. They have achieved much in the last sixteen months, but there is still a crucial thing to be done.

This draft Constitution is surely not the final word on the democratic unification of Europe. There will be further stages in the process along the way to improve the governance of the Union and to strengthen its foreign and security policy. So amendments to the Constitution will have to be made anyway.

Future constitutional amendments in a Union of 25 or more member states will be almost impossible if they depend on unanimity. Even if the proposed amendments themselves are uncontroversial, the opportunity to cast a veto can be misused to achieve other ends, to the detriment of the democracy and efficiency of the Union as a whole.

The draft constitution to be presented to the European summit in Thessaloniki today is a great step forward for the democracy and effectiveness of the European Union, according to Federal Union, the only British campaigning organisation that criticises the government for not being pro-European enough.

“The European Union has been a great success story over the past fifty years,” said Brendan Donnelly, chair of Federal Union. “We should not be shy about saying this.”

“But the government should tell the truth about this constitution. It is based on the continuation of existing arrangements, not a change in them. There has been no great victory for Peter Hain in the European convention.

The new EU Constitution is in danger of installing a citizens’ rights regime rather than one of legislative solutions.

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe marks real progress in strengthening the position of the citizen with the Union. Citizens are mentioned in article one. They will benefit from a legally binding charter of fundamental rights, at least the beginning of direct access to the European Court of Justice and accession to the European Convention on human rights.