A lively debate” “” “

In spite of the fact that the still not completely defined procedural questions are still occupying a large part of the work of the Secretariat and of the members themselves, the discussion within the Convention on the future of Europe is beginning to tackle the issues that will form the core of the final document that the Convention will present to the next intergovernmental Conference. The third session (the second official one if the inaugural Plenary assembly is excluded) began with the announcement of the designation of Alojz Peterle, Slovene parliamentarian, as “guest member” of the Presidium in representation of the candidate countries. The Union’s competencies. The theme of the session, “the Union’s competencies”, was the object of a lively debate between the members of the Convention, due not least to the new rule permitting the right to reply directly in the debating chamber. The risk of a certain confusion between “mission” and “competence” of the EU (the former constituting the objective and the latter the means of achieving it) was stressed by various speakers: as Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, President of the Convention, himself declared in the course of a press conference, it was possible to ascertain, not without some surprise, a substantial unanimity on the need not to revise the current missions of the Union, to which should also be added the foreign and common security policy and cross-border measures in terms of security and justice. Equally, on the much-debated idea to define a list of competencies for the member states, Giscard confirmed the lack of enthusiasm on the matter by a majority of the Convention’s members, in spite of some prominent exceptions such as Fini (Italian Government), Teufel (German Senate) and the Frenchman Haenel, but he also announced that he had commissioned the Secretariat of the Convention to draw up two proposals containing lists of competencies, respectively for the Union and for the member states. The expectations of citizens. John Bruton, representative of the Irish Parliament, recalled that the fundamental point consists in asking what citizens expect from the forms of government at all levels, European, national and local, adding that the Union’s central mission to consist in the creation of peace and security based on the principles of democracy, solidarity and freedom. In this regard, the French MEP Alain Lamassoure expressed the hope that the future European Constitution would mention the EU’s determination to establish peace in Europe and in the world, and that it would contain an “act of pardon” for the forms of violence committed in the past. Peter Hain, British Minister for European Affairs, said that the list of competencies ought to be flexible, while his French counterpart spoke of the need for the citizen to be able to identify with clarity the political responsibility for any kind of measure. Many proposals were made for the setting up of thematic working groups (on economic, social and legal questions) which ought to facilitate and presumably accelerate the Convention’s work, but the official decision on the actual establishment of such groups was deferred to the next plenary session planned for 23 and 24 May. G.A.G.