The last plenary assembly of the Convention on the future of Europe approved the draft version of the European Constitution on 13 June. According to almost all the members of the Convention, the text single and without opt-outs represents a ‘compromise based on the highest common denominator’ and a shared basis for negotiation in view of the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in October, called to formally adopt the European Constitution and submit it to the ratification of the National Parliaments. The members of the Convention invited President Valery Giscard d’Estaing to go to Salonica (20-21 June) to deliver the draft to the heads of state and of government, and return to Brussels to conclude the drafting of parts III and IV on the policies and instruments of the Union, in particular on the extension of qualified majority vote also to questions of foreign policy and defence; in this regard, the European Council is granting a two or three week extension to the Convention’s deadline. The final interventions emphasized the transparency of the method adopted by the Convention, and the listening to and ‘tolerance’ of the various opinions, which permitted the ‘democratic deficit’ to be filled and the citizens of Europe to be given a Constitution that defends their fundamental rights and lays the definitive foundations for European citizenship. Some amendments to the chapter on the Institutions were confirmed in the final text. They permitted a serious rift to be avoided: the European Council shall not have legislative powers; the President of the European Council shall be flanked by the President of the Commission in the preparation and management of summits, on the basis of the work of the General Affairs Council; beginning from 2009, the year when the Constitution comes into force, the Commission shall be composed by a President, a Vice-President/Minister of Foreign Affairs, thirteen European Commissioners and fifteen Commissioners without voting rights nominated with the same procedure by the European Parliament with parity in rotating nationality; the President of the Commission shall maintain his own prerogative of representing the Union abroad, with the exception of foreign and common security policy and defence policy. The controversial amendment of paragraph 2 of the Preamble was also confirmed. It declares that the European Constitution is inspired “by the cultural, religious and humanistic legacies of Europe, whose values are ever present in its heritage and have rooted in the life of society its perception of the central role of the human person, of his inviolable and inalienable rights and of respect for the rule of law” (see the following page).
