On 9 December 2003 the Italian Presidency produced new compromise proposals to be used as a basis for the discussions in the European Council meeting of 12-13 December 2003. Following the Naples meeting of foreign ministers, the Presidency has produced an Explanatory memorandum (IGC Doc 60/03) and two new documents.
The first, CIG 60/03 ADD 1 covers issues that the Presidency feels that they have managed to integrate the comments of the various delegations and that this is now a balanced package. Annex 32 (pages 45-46) covers Article III-179 on public health.
This latest draft has amendments to some paragraphs of Article III-179. The new additions are indicated in bold.
1. (b) monitoring, early warning and combating accidental or intentional serious threats to health when they may affect more than one Member State. The previous draft had stated when they may have a European dimension.
2. The Union shall encourage cooperation between the Member States in the areas referred to in this Article and, if necessary, lend support to their action. It shall in particular, encourage cooperation between the Member States to improve the complementarity of their health services in cross-border areas.
7. Union action in the field of public health shall respect the responsibilities of the Member States for the definition of their health policy and for the organisation and delivery of health services and medical care. The responsibilities of the Member States shall include the management of health services and medical care and the allocation of the resources assigned to them. Measures referred to in paragraph 4(a) shall not affect national provisions on the donation or medical use of organs and blood.
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The Presidency’s second document (CIG 60/03 ADD 2), which will be available shortly, addresses the more sensitive political issues which the Presidency intends should constitute the focus of the discussions on 12-13 December. The proposals set out in this document have been drawn up by the Presidency in the light of its consultations with delegations.
Furthermore, the Presidency states that if an issue is not listed in either of the two documents listed above or raised by a government delegation, then text of the draft Constitutional Treaty, as set out in CIG 50/03, remains unchanged. So the end result of the IGC process will be the consolidated text of the treaty, as revised by the legal experts group (CIG 50/03 + COR 1, REV 1 (fr) and ADD 1, ADD 1 COR 1 (en), and ADD 1 COR 2) and a single package containing amendments to this consolidated text, based on the Presidency proposals as modified in the light of the discussions.
Only afterwards will a single consolidated text be established.
