EUROPEAN CONVENTION: COUNCIL CONCERNED OVER FORESEEABLE DELAY IN WORK.

• Position: Praesidium of European Convention will postpone substantive debate on Common Foreign and Security Policy

Member States' delegates divided over CFSP.

The Praesidium of the European Convention has decided to postpone substantive debate on Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), in favour of an article-by-article debate on Titles I, II and III of the Treaty (covering the definition and objectives of the Union, citizenship and competences) and of the legal instruments for EU actions, in particular enhanced co-operation under CFSP, at the plenary session on February 27 and 28 (see European Report 2752, same Section). But the amendments tabled augur for a difficult debate, notwithstanding the general context of the Iraqi crisis and the impact it has already had on EU unity. European Commission President Romano Prodi has agreed to Giscard d'Estaing's request for a Eurostat survey on the public's expectations in the field of foreign policy (see European Report 2749, same Section).

Article 14 (foreign policy) as proposed by the Praesidium merely stipulates that "Member States shall actively and unreservedly support the Union's common foreign and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity. They shall refrain from action contrary to the Union's interests or likely to undermine its effectiveness". This wording gave rise to 25 amendments, of which seven are by representatives of governments.

Italian government representative Gianfranco Fini is seeking to add immediately before the above the following sentence - "The European Union shall establish and pursue a common foreign, security and defence policy in accordance with the provisions of Part Two of this Constitution" -, which seems to announce the inclusion of a specific chapter on common policies. In the same vein French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin expands the scope of the text: "the Union shall define and implement a common foreign and security policy covering all areas of foreign and security policy". Slovakia's government representative Ivan Korcok adds a second paragraph to the initial wording to restrict the general scope of CFSP: "The exercise of the Union's competences under the common foreign and security policy shall have the effect of excluding only those individual external actions ruled out by the European Council".

In a more conservative slant, Ernani Lopes, representing the Portuguese government, bases his version in essence on Article 17 of the Treaty of Nice: "The Union shall be empowered to define and implement a common foreign and security policy...