CONVENTION ON THE FUTURE OF EUROPE: FIRST OPEN DEBATE POINTS UP WIDELY DIFFERING APPROACHES.

The protracted debate, lasting almost eight hours spread over two days and involving 82 speakers, highlighted several underlying strands, which tend not to point to a federalist approach. Mr Giscard d'Estaing sought to frame discussions from the start of the session, posing a number of questions: should the future of Europe be based upon an approximation of our ways of life or maintain diversity, should the EU act directly or should it give preference to recommendations to Member States? Excluding contributions from the two Commissioners, the majority of European Parliament delegates and a few representatives of the Member States, such as Germany and the Netherlands, all the other speakers - and all 26 of the speakers from the candidate countries in particular - responded in terms of "subsidiarity", division of powers, enhancement of the role of national parliaments, co-operation", and even "an end to Brussels bureaucracy". These same speakers, and above all representatives of the smallest countries, nevertheless insisted conversely on the development of a Common Foreign and Security Policy and a common judicial area. The only consensus to emerge concerned the vision of the Union as a Community of values - though few mentioned the Charter of Fundamental Rights and fewer still its integration into the Treaty - and a tool permitting the economic integration of Europe in a globalised world whilst preserving its social model. Barring a few hard-line Eurosceptics, there was unanimous agreement that the Convention should arrive on its conclusion at a consensual text, though fewer than a dozen speakers alluded to the introduction of a Constitution.The British MEP Andrew Duff (ELDR) insisted that the federal question could not be avoided. His Danish colleague Jens Peter Bonde (EDD) replied that "the majority of decisions must be taken at national level". Between these two trends, the balance of interventions tippled clearly in favour of a highly conservative position, which the British Government's representative Peter Hain summed up thus: "Work should only be undertaken at the European level where the Union is a source of strength with Member States showing modesty in finding the means for co-operation". This theme was widely echoed. Former Polish Prime Minister Josef Oleksy told delegates: "My country is anxious not to lose its identify, account must be taken of cultural differences". The Estonian Parliament's delegate, Peter Kreitzberg, echoed...