IGC: ITALIAN PRESIDENCY STRUGGLES TO IMPOSE ITS METHOD AND TIMETABLE.

The Presidency submitted a complete procedure document, including a timetable, with a view to the official announcement of the IGC. As the heads of State and Government at the Salonika Summit considered that the draft Constitutional Treaty drawn up by the Convention was "a good starting point", Franco Frattini said that "as a result, the IGC should maintain the same level of ambition, especially on institutional questions, and should try to distance itself as little as possible from the balanced text published after 18 months of intense negotiations". Although the Presidency insists also that work must be completed during the European Council of December 12 and 13, another four months of legal and linguistic fine tuning will be needed to consolidate the text before the European elections of June 13, the deadline set at Salonika. Consequently, it was confirmed that the IGC will be carried out on a political level, essentially by the Foreign Affairs Ministers, whose meetings will be prepared by Ministers' personal representatives. "They will meet as often as possible in order to double Ministers' capacity for action", according to French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. This middle way will make it possible to satisfy those who, like the United Kingdom, Spain or Sweden, have called for technical groups to be set up, an idea challenged by the Presidency in so far as such groups would no doubt have a tendency, by their very nature, to want to re-write the Convention's draft completely. Technical work - without political influence in the first instance - will however take place, if only to guarantee the legal security of the future Constitution. The General Secretariat of the Council has therefore on the one hand been tasked with identifying the measures which need legal clarification. For example, with regard to Article I-25 on the Commission, it is scheduled to be set up as from November 1, 2009, but the text says nothing about the period preceding the entry into force of the Constitution. "If it transpires tat political choices are hidden behind these legal questions, then these should immediately be taken to ministerial level", warned the Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel.

Elsewhere, the Legal Services of the Commission and the Council will review the whole of the primary legislation (protocols, accession treaties, other treaties and acts, etc.) to ensure legal continuity and make sure they are coherent with the new Constitution. In contrast, the 25 EU countries have decided not to reformulate the common policies, even though some of them, such as the Common Agricultural Policy, appear outmoded with regard to the evolution of Community legislation, because re-writing them would threaten to lead to political controversy.

Packed timetable.

The Presidency has suggested the following timetable:

- October 4, morning (Rome): Opening of the IGC by the Heads of State and...