“From now on, every meeting of the Presidium will have a fundamental importance in defining the structure of the Constitution to be proposed to the member states”, says Nicholas Meyer-Landrut, spokesman of the Convention on the future of Europe, on presenting the report of the meeting of 10-11 April, at the end of which the Presidium approved the agenda for the Convention’s next plenary session, to be held in Brussels on 24-25 April. The members of the Convention will then be able to examine the draft articles relating to the so-called “external action of the Union”, a document in which Presidium has collected the juridical foundations already in force in the treaties relating to the various chapters of the external action of the EU: common foreign and security policy, defence policy, trade policy, policy of cooperation in development and humanitarian aid, restrictive measures, international accords and relations with the international organizations. According to Meyer-Landrut, it is a “complex and comprehensive” text, on which an absolute embargo has been placed until it is officially presented at the next plenary session. The Presidium at its meeting on 10-11 April also considered the need to “simplify and clarify” the existing legislation in this field and examined the possible role of an EU Foreign Minister, whose powers and responsibilities would have to be subsequently defined by the governments of the member states (see page…). In the plenary session in late April, the Convention will also debate the ‘democratic life of the Union, its ‘surrounding environment’, ‘membership of the Union’ and ‘general and final provisions’; the deadline for the presentation of amendments on these areas expired on 11 April. No ‘complete’ draft will be presented on issues relating to “economic and monetary coordination”, because there exist strong differences between the members of the Convention: the Presidium will only prepare some partial drafts.
