EU in brief" "
The work of the Convention on the future of Europe has officially ended. It completed the draft European Constitution on 10 July. It will be presented in Rome on 18 July, and will form the basis for negotiations at the intergovernmental conference (Igc) which, from 4 October, will have the mandate of formally adopting the new constitutional Treaty. The Treaty will be signed in Rome prior to the European elections in June 2004, and should come fully into force in 2009. The draft Constitution, 450 articles covering some 250 pages, is divided into four parts, plus the Preamble: definition, objectives, institutions and jurisdiction of the Union; Charter of fundamental rights; policies and functioning of the Union; general and final provisions. The main innovations concern the elevation of the European Council to the rank of Eu institution; the introduction of a permanent President of the European Council for a term of office of two and a half years, renewable only once; the creation of the post of Eu Minister of Foreign Affairs, who will simultaneously serve as chairman of the Foreign Relations Council and Vice-President of the Commission; the extension of qualified majority vote (the majority of the member countries and 60% of the European population) to over seventy sectors of EU competence; and the definition of the motto of Europe (“unity in diversity”) and the European anthem (Beethoven’s “Hymn to Joy”). But the IGC will have to solve many other constitutional problems: first, the question whether there should be a reference in the Preamble to the Judeo-Christian roots of Europe; second the composition of the Commission, which some want to restrict while others defend the principle “one State, one Commissioner”; third, the definition of the respective powers and fields of jurisdiction of the President of the European Council, the President of the Commission and the Minister of Foreign Affairs; fourth, the extension of qualified majority vote to decisions in the field of foreign policy, security, defence and taxation; and fifth, the procedure for constitutional amendment, by ‘superqualified’ majority or by simple majority.
