At the beginning of the Plenary session the Praesidium presented the new draft articles on the Institutional reform, the External Relations (Title VIII, Part I) and the CFSP (Common Foreign and Security Policy) and Defence (articles 29 and 30).
These articles will be debated in the next Plenary (15th and 16th May), and are considered as the most controversial ones.
The members of the Convention clearly expressed their wish of debating this issue a.s.a.p. There were a few proposals to include this issue in the current Plenary agenda.
The plenary debate has been overshadowed by the general discontent with Mr Giscard d’Estaing’s controversial proposals on the reform of the Institutions delivered in last week’s Athens summit.
His document has a strong intergovernmental flavour and was leaked to the press before being presented to the Convention. This provoked strong criticism from all sources.
The Praesidium met on Wednesday 23 April in an intense debate which focused on Mr Giscard’s proposals, trying to water them down for Thursday 24 April Plenary session.
"You have discredited this convention in public," railed Johannes Voggenhuber MEP (Greens/EFA, Austria) "You haven’t listened to us. I lack confidence on you, you speak for the Europe of bureaucracy, we speak for the European citizens". Agenda of the Plenary Session
