"Our position on the Constitution must be firm and ambitious. We must amend it where needed, but the substance of the Treaty", signed in 2004 by the 27 member states, "must be left unchanged". Margot Wallstrom, deputy president of the EU Commission, spoke about the constitutional process and the summit of the heads of state and government of the EU in late July. "There are parts of the Constitution that can be improved, but we must respect the positions that have emerged" after the rejection of the Charter by the French and Dutch voters; but there are also "inalienable gains" "and they include the Charter of Fundamental Rights", which gives rights and duties to the EU citizens. According to the Swedish Commissioner, "attention must be paid to the form of the text, its length, the use of EU symbols. We have to make the text legible and accessible to everyone". "Then she adds we will have to explain to the citizens that a new Treaty is needed, because it strengthen European democracy, empowers the EU to act and respond to the concrete needs of people". As to the other items on the agenda of the summit, the Commissioner recalls the "overriding importance of climate change and the problem of migration", to which "we must respond together", "the situation in Africa and the fight against Aids".
