Listening to society and the churches” “

The Convention on the future of Europe is about to open. Its President, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, recently presented the members and programme of work of the body given the task of drawing up proposals for the institutional reforms of the European Union. Attention will need to be paid to the suggestions that will be made to the Convention by civil society, and the churches too will need to be listened to. We interviewed Pier Virgilio Dastoli , representative of the permanent Forum of civil society. Now that the various delegations that compose the Convention have been finalized or almost, what still remains to be defined? “As regards the method of work, various questions still need to be resolved: the order in which the 118 members of the Convention will sit in the auditorium, the calendar of work and the order of discussions. In this latter regard, Giscard is of the view that the first phase should be dedicated to listening (March-June), the second to analysis (July-December) and the last to synthesis (January 2003-end of the Convention). Amato, by contrast, is of the opinion that a preliminary discussion of general character should be conducted on what he has called ‘the diseases of Europe’ and then solutions should be proposed. Then there is the problem of the religious roots of Europe. This problem was sidelined in the charter of fundamental right but which now needs to be addressed. The fourth point that still needs to be clarified concerns the question: ‘who must do the real work?’: I would exclude the office-holders of the institutions or of the various cabinets. Since what we are faced by is a ‘constituent’ Convention, it would be a good thing if there were a general rapporteur. This is a role which might be entrusted to Giuliano Amato. Lastly, a final unresolved question concerns the ways in which the final decision is reached: a unanimous vote could paralyze the decisions, while a majority vote would avoid low-level compromises and lead to a Union of federal type”. What will be the Convention’s relation with civil society and how do you intend to activate the permanent Forum? “At Laeken a new method was accepted. It was the outcome of a long process of discussion between the non-governmental organizations and in particular the permanent Forum of civil society which insists on the model of participatory democracy. There must be an open dialogue during the whole of the Convention, on all the issues that concern civil society: the Convention’s website must be interactive and not merely informative. It is also essential that the Convention selects from among its own members a fixed interlocutor with civil society, a ‘man of external relations’. When the Convention finally reaches the point of adopting its final document, which we hope will be of constitutional character, it will be equally important that the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) does not have the power to radically alter it; to this end, it will be important for the Council to acknowledge that, if wide consensus of public opinion exists on the final document, the IGC will not be able to ignore it”.