EUROPEAN CONVENTION: COMMISSION MEASURES INSTITUTIONAL AMBITIONS.

The seminar took as its starting point a document by the Task Force on the "Future of the Union", created in order to support Michel Barnier and Antonio Vitorino on the Praesidium. The text, some ten pages long, includes a part on "fundamental Union missions", an issue that should be addressed in the forthcoming Communication, a section on "the division of responsibilities, which should be the object of a subsequent contribution, though several Commissioners have sought to link the issue to that of "fundamental missions", and finally a part on the EU's "institutional architecture", the most delicate question which will in any case be addressed separately. Messrs Barnier and Vitorino have been asked to draft a Communication for April 30, though its publication might be deferred until the beginning of May. It will however certainly be available to the Convention in time for its May 23-24 plenary session.Fundamental tasks.Whilst there is agreement that the basis of the European project lies in the principles of freedom, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law - a basis that must necessarily be well defined according to several participants -, the project must also rest on the conviction that integration is justified when it brings added value, according to the working paper.Several tasks thus merit further consideration:- On economic questions, the College's position is fairly conservative. The aim must be to preserve the regular functioning of the internal market, given that the four freedoms would only be theoretical if there was not a competition policy at the Community level; to pursue and overhaul sectoral policies, notably in those sectors requiring attention, in association with the Member States, to ensure market regulation (European agricultural model, transport, financial services, energy, telecommunications, etc); to guarantee the best possible co-ordination of national economic policies; and to enhance economic and social cohesion in an enlarged Union.- Regarding external relations, the aim should be to integrate the various economic and commercial instruments in a single broad external policy. Diplomatic activity, customs union, commercial policy, single external representation of development policy, security and defence policy might usefully be combined in a coherent fashion. The integration of defence policy is highly controversial within the Commission team, though it is supported by...