INTER-GOVERNMENTAL CONFERENCE: PARLIAMENT URGES MEMBER STATES TO RESPECT BALANCE OF DRAFT CONSTITUTION.

The report tabled by Jose Mar!a Gil-Robles (EPP, Spain) and Dimitrios Tsatsos (PES, Greece) was adopted by the Constitutional Affairs Committee by 18 votes to 6 with 4 abstentions. The Committee is calling on Parliament's plenary session to give the green light for the IGC to start at the beginning of October and it supports the Italian Presidency's intention of winding up the proceedings by December this year. MEPs would like the new Treaty to be signed by the 25 Member States on May 9, 2004, which is also Europe Day. If their Constitutions allow, all Member States should then hold a referendum, if possible on the same day as the European elections. The Committee welcomed the progress achieved with the drafting of the Constitution for Europe, "even if not all demands in respect of democracy, transparency and efficiency in the European Union were met". The report adopted highlights "important steps towards a more democratic, efficient and transparent European Union" but also "aspects requiring further monitoring" and the "shortcomings" of the draft Constitution.

Among the points to be welcomed, MEPs highlighted the inclusion of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the simplification of EU acts, the abolition of the pillar structure, the wider use of the co-decision procedure and of qualified majority voting, the election of the President of the Commission by Parliament, the introduction of the citizen's right of legislative initiative, the possibility of structural cooperation in security and defence policy "while respecting Alliance commitments", and the separation of the Euratom Treaty from the legal structure of the future Constitution. The "aspects requiring further monitoring" include the election of the President of the European Council, whose role MEPs say should be strictly limited to chairing proceedings in order to avoid any conflicts with the President of the Commission or the EU Foreign Minister. The Foreign Minister should, moreover, be supported by a joint Council-Commission administration. MEPs also call for a more prominent role for Parliament in the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and defence policy. MEPs added that, under the budget procedure, their powers should not be reduced by comparison with the present situation. They welcomed the disappearance of the link between the weighting of votes in Council and the distribution of seats in Parliament, a link laid down in the Protocol to the Nice Treaty, and they...

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