EUROPEAN UNION: COREPER TO EXAMINE CONVENTION BUDGET.

Pierre de Boissieu has sought to put the cost of the Convention, due to start on February 28, into some sort of perspective. He recalls that a two-day EU summit costs between Euro 11 and 15 million, a special EU envoy or representative between three and five million a year and the open debate on the Future of Europe in 2001 costs four million. At this stage of the planning, the Convention Secretariat should include between 15 and 17 officials from the three institutions. The secretariat is due to be installed in the Council premises, where 30 or so offices have to be fitted out and translation and interpretation staff have to be on hand. The entire logistical exercise is set to cost about 30 million in real terms but the General Secretariat stresses that the offices would have had to been occupied anyhow, and the official would have had to be paid anyhow. So, all things being equal, it is more a question of moving...