EUROPEAN CONVENTION: PRAESIDIUM DIVIDED ON DRAFT TREATY STRUCTURE.

The draft text tabled by Valery Giscard d'Estaing only concerns the Constitutional Treaty and not the second part, which should contain common policies and the relevant new decision-making procedures. The proposal is constructed in such a way as to embrace a hundred or so articles divided into a score of chapters. The Charter of Fundamental Rights is not integrated as it stands, a fact that caused eyebrows to rise within the Praesidium, particularly as no provision is made for a preamble. Other Praesidium members likewise questioned the examples offered as illustrations of the EU's missions, highlighting notably the absence of a defence policy.

Mr Giscard d'Estaing's behaviour was once again criticised by the European Parliament's Convention members. Elmar Brok (EPP, Germany), although EPP co-ordinator within the various components of the Convention, drew the consequences of his marginalisation within his Party at the Estoril Congress (see separate article in this Section). He called for a better internal co-operation within the parliamentary delegation as a component of the Convention. Lord Stockton (EPP, United Kingdom), one of the rare Europhiles on his country's delegation, also called for the drafting of a "summary document on Parliament's positions". Pervenche Beres (PES, France) agreed "this is a crucial juncture since it is clear we are moving towards an institutional model where the President of the Council will be given the means, little by little, to nibble away at all Union responsibilities". She nevertheless expressed some caution regarding the adoption of a trans-partisan position within the European Parliament, recalling the reluctance of the EPP and the ELDR to subscribe to PES ambitions within the group on "economic governance" chaired by Klaus Hansch, notably with a view to defining procedures for the co-ordination of economic policies, the institutionalisation of the Eurogroup and preservation of the European Social Model. On this last point, Mr Hansch announced that the Praesidium should endorse the creation of a specific working group on "social questions", demanded by the left at the Convention's last plenary session. Mr Hansch is reluctant to endorse any autonomous positioning of the parliamentary delegation. He warned...