The Convention has decided to start its final Plenary session a day earlier, initially scheduled for the Thursday and Friday only.
New Texts
Giscard d’Estaing gathered the ’Conventioneers’ on Wednesday at 15:00h to present them with a few new texts:
This document includes the text of the Preamble and of Part I of the Treaty establishing the Constitution, together with that of the Protocols on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and the role of the national Parliaments, in a version revised by the Praesidium in the light of the comments and amendments of last Plenary session (5 June) and the consultations with the component groups of the Convention (6 June).
New or revised provisions of Part III.
This document includes some new provisions and some revised articles of Part III of the Constitution, drafted by the Praesidium on a number of issues which were the subject of discussions at the last plenary (5-6 June).
These cover horizontal provisions (annex I), economic governance (annex II) and voting in CFSP (annex III). Also articles of Part III on Institutions, which have been adapted accordingly with the changes previously made to Part I.
The Presidium will consider further changes which might be introduced in the light of written amendments to Part III which some members of the Convention have submitted, or may wish to submit by Monday 23 June at 12.00.
If the European Council gives green light to the Convention to meet again, they would do so on the 9-11 July to finalise Part III, specially foreign policy, economic governance and freedom, security and justice.
Two Hour Break
The ’Conventioneers’, overloaded with all these documents, demanded a few hours to read them and discuss them in their components groups (European Parliament, National Parliament, Commission, National Government representatives...).
Giscard d’Estaing adjourned the Plenary session at 16:00h and asked everybody to be back by 18:00h.
Plenary Interventions
The debate continued in a lively atmosphere, there was no list of speakers therefore the Conventioneers recurred to the ’blue card’ system (those wishing to intervene would have to ask for the floor raising a blue card).
Giscard d’Estaing asked the ’Conventioneers’ to focus their interventions on the issue of voting.
However, a few interventions focused in Part I of the Treaty, amongst them those demanding to include a reference to Christianity in the Preamble.
But the majority of the ’Conventioneers’ agreed that debating issues other than the ones where consensus was still needed was not productive.
Amongst all the interventions, the following were of special interest to EPHA:
Pascale Andreani (EPP-ED, French government representative): "The article on the objectives of the Union does not include ’services of general interest’, the article on international agreements does not mention ’cultural, educational and health services’ as a shared competence. If this is not amended the Constitution will not be ratified by France".
Erwin Teufel (EPP-ED, (German government representative) and Hubert Haenel (EPP-ED, French government representative): support Ms Andreani’s statement.
Thursday 12 June and Friday 13 June
The ’Conventioneers spent the last 30 minutes deciding their working method for the following two days of the Plenary session.
Finally, the Convention agreed:
Thursday morning: component meetings at early morning, they would make specific proposals and they would present them to the Presidium before lunch if possible.
Thursday afternoon: public session at 18:00h, the conclusions of the work of the Convention would be presented to the general public.
Friday morning: session focused on revising the Conclusions.
