On Wednesday 9 July, the Convention met in plenary session.
The previous draft of Part III (policies) dated 8 July, had not improved article 174 (ex 152) on public health. However, three interventions demanded changes on this article:
Antonio Vitorino pointed out the need to clarify the legal basis of public health, and he referred to the Commission’s amendment in this sense.
Pierre Lequiller supported Mr Vitorino’s intervention on public health.
Marietta Giannaku pointed out the need of a specific reference on the fight against drugs.
At 18:00h the Convention plenary session ended, giving room for the ’components’ meetings, and a last Presidium meeting later in the evening.
In the morning of Thursday 10 July, the final plenary session of the Convention, President Giscard d’Estaing announced that the Presidium had finally made changes to article 174 (ex 152) on public health on the light of the oral interventions of Wednesday evening.
"We have introduced provisions that refer to specific forms of coordination, like the Open Method of Coordination (OMC)", explained Giscard d’Estaing.
There is also a new mention of the need to keep the European Parliament ’fully informed’.
No further interventions on policy issues were made in the session.
Only one strong message from all speakers to member states: the Convention must be present during the IGC to defend that Constitutional Text remains as it is.
Giscard d’Estaing will bring the full Constitutional Text to Rome next 18 July.
The minutes of the Presidium meetings have not been made public during the Convention works. However, the publication of the minutes will probably take place in the near future.
