A task-force to monitor the work of the European Convention was unveiled in recent days at the Department for the Community Policies at Italy’s Presidency of the Council in Rome. Composed of 23 permanent members and coordinated by Francesco Tufarelli of the same Department, the task-force will have the job of monitoring the work of the European Convention, which is due to meet for the first time on 28 February. The 105 members of the Convention will be called to prepare a draft document for the reform of the EU treaties by mid-2003 and to submit it to the intergovernmental Conference. In pursuing this objective, declared Italy’s Minister for EU Policies, Rocco Buttiglione, “we must be guided by the concern to respond to the questions of citizens and not by any intention to realize an abstract model”. That’s why the task-force will monitor the work of the Convention and undertake to keep Italian citizens informed about the progress of the debate on the future of Europe. At the same time it will gather recommendations, observations and views of civil society and promote debate between the Italian representatives at the Convention and citizens. “We will follow the work of the Convention, gather material, create opportunities for meetings with the participants explained Buttiglione in an interview with SirEurope and try to contribute some ideas” to the debate. “Only if the members of the Convention are able to take on board the appeals being made by the various countries said the coordinator of the task-force, Tufarelli will it be possible to lay the foundations for the future intergovernmental Conference and for a genuine Constitution of the Union”. The task-force has also announced that it will publish a newsletter every 15 days and provide an updated summary of the Convention’s work.
