EU Convention

*UPDATED* The EU is 50 years-old: Celebrating the common values of the EU

*This article has been updated with responses to the Berlin Declaration *
The 25th of March 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome which established the European Union. The event offered an opportunity to look ahead to the next 50 years and imagine the EU of 2057.
The ’Berlin Declaration’ was adopted on the 25 March 2007. The Declaration reflected upon the main achievements of the EU so far, and reaffirmed its values:
Solidarity: an enlarged and open Europe requires greater (...)

IGC final preparatory meeting before Brussels Summit

The IGC met at Foreign Minister level in Luxembourg on Monday, 14 June 2004. The meeting was to prepare final negotiations ahead of the Summit of Heads of State or Government level in Brussels on 17/18 June.
The Foreign Ministers had met on 17-18 May and again on 24 May to identify areas of consensus. Read the related EPHA article. The Irish Presidency commented:
"This morning we had a very productive meeting. Most of our discussion was focused on document CIG 80/04, which was circulated (...)

Irish presidency continues constitutional talks

Minister for Foreign Affairs Brian Cowen addressed the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, Common Security and Defence Policy on 20 January 2004, on the current state of play regarding the IGC.
He announced that EU Foreign Ministers will continue the negotiations on the Constitutional text on 29 January, in the form of an initial informal discussion over lunch at next Monday’s meeting of the General Affairs and External Relations Council.
The European Council gave the Irish (...)

IGC - New Presidency compromise text, 9 December

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 (...)

IGC endgame - Results of the Foreign Ministers ’Conclave’

Under the Presidency of Minister for Foreign Affairs Franco Frattini, the "Conclave" of EU Foreign Ministers met on 28-29 November 2003. The Ministers discussed the Italian Presidency’s draft of 25 November and to outline the agenda of the IGC session at Head of State and Government level to be held in mid-December at the same time as the European Summit.
The results of the meeting were some significant agreements: each country to have their own Commissioner with voting rights. Progress (...)

Italian Presidency’s strategy to finish IGC on time

Speaking to MEPs in Strasbourg, Silvio Berlusconi, the head of the rotating Council Presidency, explained on 22 October that in order to find a compromise on the outstanding issues relating to the new EU Constitution, a negotiating method has been chosen which is "different from previous ones".
This new method consists of three phases: the first phase aims to map out the positions of individual governments.
In the second phase, the Italian Presidency puts together a first proposed solution. (...)

IGC secretariat issues comments on the draft Constitution

The Secretariat of the IGC issued on 6th October 2003 a 553 page document which suggests legal and linguistic amendments to the Draft Constitution.
This document will be the basis of the negotiations in the IGC. The Secretariat draft has deleted, merged and created new articles articles in order to clarify the text produced by the Convention.
Each suggestion has an explanatory statement to provide the justification for the changes.
Article I-3, EU Objectives The IGC Secretariat draft makes (...)

IGC will finally debate public health on 27 October

Influencing the IGC debate on public health
On 6 October 2003, the IGC Secretariat (consisting of the European Council legal staff) published their Editoral and legal comments on the draft Constitution text. A few days later, on 9 October 2003, the expert group on technical issues (which includes all Member States and Accession Countries) began its work.
This is now a key moment to influence the debate on the technical and legal changes to the treaty text.
There is also an updated (...)

September 2003, briefing on the IGC structure

On 6-7 September 2003 the Italian Presidency presented their plans for the IGC and confirmed their intention to meet the deadline of completion by December 2003 despite emphasis by several Member States that they were not prepared to speed through the process.
The Italian presidency stated that there would be no or minimal involvement of experts and there will not be preparatory groups. This implies that the Presidency considers Part III (policy areas) closed.
The IGC process will be led (...)

September 2003, debate on the IGC in the EP

Last Wednesday 3rd September, the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasburg, dedicated one of its debates to the Convention for the Future of Europe.
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (Chairman of the Convention), Romano Prodi (European Commission President) and the Italian Presidency, represented by Gianfranco Fini (Deputy Prime Minister) and Franco Frattini (Foreign Minister) dialogued with the MEPs about the Convention and the IGC.
Warning against changes to the 16-month work of the (...)

August 2003, IGC campaign strategies

Please find below an extract of the 11th Bulletin of the Act4europe campaign, by Nico Berger, Coordinator of the Act4europe campaign, Social Platform.
The EU Presidency and our Foreign Ministers have been quite busy over the summer designing the IGC, and we were busy collecting information about their plans.
They will in fact make their decisions this coming weekend (interestingly enough before the other EU institutions have even finalised their opinions...).
The European Parliament is in (...)

July 2003, EU Member States set out their positions for the IGC

There is increasing evidence that the Convention’s draft of the Constitutional Treaty will be re-written during the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC). The UK, with the support of Ireland, Scandinavian countries, Spain, Italy and some Eastern European countries, have signalled their intention to re-open the text.
Reports in UK newspapers state that the government will issue in early September a policy statement detailing the areas where it is not prepared to compromise, such as tax (...)

July 2003, What do Europeans think of the Convention?

A flash Eurobarometer survery released by the European Commission indicates that across the 25 EU/CEE countries only 45 % of those questioned had heard of the EU Convention. Highest recognition came from Greece, which had held the most recent EU Presidency. Lowest scores were found in the UK where 75 % of those questioned did not know what the Convention was.
But about 50 % of those interviewed would be interested in reading a summary of the constitutional treaty. Citizens were confused (...)

July 2003, Convention’s Forum to Continue During IGC

The Convention’s Forum on the Future of the European Union, which has enjoyed the technical support of the Commission, was supposed to close down last 18 July, when the Convention finished its works.
However, the Commission has decided that civil society that showed interest in following the process of the Convention by joining the Convention’s Forum, should be allowed to make use of this Forum during the Intergovernmental Conference (beginning in October 2003).
Futurum website
For more (...)

July 2003, EPHA guide to the Convention on the Future of Europe

WHY A ’CONVENTION’?
As the historic enlargement of the EU to Central and Eastern Europe approached it became clear the need to reform the European Union and its Treaties in order to prepare for a Europe of 25 rather than 15 countries. In addition there was strong pressure to make the EU more democratic, transparent, and efficient. The time had come for a profound debate on the objectives and goals of the EU, its Treaties and its institutions.
In the Laeken Summit, 14-15 November 2001, (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 9-10 July

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 (...)

July 2003, Convention and Health: No Changes in the latest Draft Text of Part III (Policies)

After all the amendments and oral interventions on public health, article III-174 (ex Article 152) has not been modified by the Presidium.
The new draft of Part III (policies), dated 8th July 2003, does not innovate since the last draft of Part III (policies) dated 27th June.
On Wednesday 9 July, the Plenary will meet from 15:00h onwards in the European Parliament. They will discuss the new draft of Part III (policies) and then the Presidium will decide if meeting again the same evening to (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 4 July

Introduction by Giscard d’Estaing
Convention President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing started with a briefing on the reactions of the heads of Member states gathered in Thessaloniki to the Constitutional text.
He said that there had been ’possitive reactions’ and a recognition of the ’broad consensus’.
Giscard also said that the conclusions of the Council only reflected partially the athmosphere of the debate and the support of the Member States which was more than he had hoped for.
Then he (...)

July 2003, Written Amendments for Convention’s Public Debate on Policies

Plenary to Debate Policies
The European Convention will hold two additional plenary sessions on 4 and 9-10 July to discuss Parts III and IV of the draft Constitution, dealing with the EU’s policies, the issue of ratification by Member States and the procedures for the revision of the Constitution.
Some 1.700 amendments were tabled. Proposals concern the division of powers between the Member States and the Union’s institutions and their competences over a complete range of policies, (...)

June 2003, Thessaloniki Summit: verdict of Member States on the Convention

Valery Giscard d’Estaing presented the Constitutional text to the Member State representatives in the Thessaloniki Summit. Although there was a general acceptance of the text as a ’good basis for the IGC’, some countries insisted on their concerns.
The United Kingdom said that they will use their veto on foreign policy and taxation matters.
Spain expressed its interest to go back to the Nice Treaty provisions on the voting system.
Poland insisted on the need to include a reference to (...)

June 2003, Constitution presented to Member States at Thessaloniki Summit

EU leaders continued on Friday 20 June the works of the European Council, dedicated on Friday morning to debate the first project for a European Constitution.
Greek premier Minister Costas Simitis received in a public ceremony the draft of the Constitutional Text from the hands of Valery Giscard d’Estaing, president of the Convention.
Costas Simitis said that "whatever the result" they had "lived through an important day in the history of the Union".
The representatnts of the governments (...)

June 2003, Civil Society Plans Strategy for Thessaloniki

On 17 June 2003 the Social Platform faced Jean-Luc Dehanene (vice-President of the Convention) with NGOs, Unions and think tanks.
In a one-day event national and European civil society representatives got together to assess the their advocacy campaigns on the EU Convention.
Jean-Luc Dehaene answered the questions from the floor focusing on what he presented as a suscessful Constitutional text.
Trying to cope with the reminders of ’what was not in’, Dehaene instead the participants to ’read (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 12-13 June

On Thursday 12 and Friday 13 of June, the Convention met in Plenary session for the last time before the Thessaloniki Summit.
On Thursday, after a long day of meetings with the component groups of the Convention the Presidium turned up to the plenary session at 19:00, one hour later than expected.
Giscard d’Estaing presented the document with the final amendments to the text, amongst which he mentioned amendments to the Preamble, to the articles on the institutional reform and (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 11 June 2003

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:
Revised text of Part I.
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 (...)

June 2003, Social Platform Organises Large Event on the Convention

The Civil Society Contact Group of the Social Platform brings together the four large NGO families - environment, social, human rights, development - and the ETUC, representing millions of people throughout Europe via their membership.
Jointly they aim to ensure that the views and interests of NGOs are heard within the process of shaping Europe’s future framework.
Please find below the agenda for the final event to mark the end of the Convention, to be held in Brussels on 17 June: the (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary 30-31 May

The Convention Plenary of 30-31 May 2003 covered Parts I, II and III of the new constitutional treaty. The issue of health was not addressed in Article I-3 despite numerous amendments from Convention members.
The latest EPHA briefing note on the discussions can be found here.

May 2003, Putting Health into the EU Treaty

Good health is a fundamental human right, a high priority for citizens and should be recognised as an objective for the European Union. Repeated public opinion surveys across Europe have shown that health is a key concern and that Europeans want health issues recognised in a range of EU activities such as agriculture, trade and environment policies.
The Convention on the future of Europe was responsible for drafting a Constitutional Treaty for the European Union. Specifically Article I-3 of (...)

May 2003, Why Presidium MAY NOT Include Public Health as an Objective of the Union

Thanks this time to the environment NGOs and the Social Platform we have received a document (which seems also to be a note of the secretariat to the Praesidium) on how they should proceed for Articles 1 to 7.
In this document the Presidium explains why they MAY NOT include public health as an Union objective:
"(...) the draft now includes most of the "social objectives" as identified by the Working Group on "Social Europe", some of which were not previously mentioned.
The Praesidium (...)

May 2003, Praesidium Issues Comments on Social Europe WG Conclusions

INCORPORATION OF THE CONCLUSIONS OF THE SOCIAL EUROPE WG INTO THE TREATY
The Convention Praesidium has prepared a note on how the conclusions of the Social Europe Working Group should be incorporated in the future treaty.
The original text was in French (at the end of this article).
We have translated to English the paragraphs that we think are most important for our activities.
Values to be inserted into article 2 of Part I: the Working Group and discussions in the plenary session have (...)

May 2003, Convention Final Steps

EPHA has been following the latest developments in the Convention for the Future of Europe, sending regular emails to our members and interested representatives of other organisations, as well as European Institutions.
EPHA activity is now focused on the Convention final steps:
Before 15 May: EPHA will contact the members of the Praesidium to remind them of the importance of including public heath in their draft text as an objective of the Union in article 3 and a shared competence in (...)

April 2003, EP Sets Up Working Groups to Influence Final Phase of EU Convention

The European Parliament has set up working groups to examine the draft Constitution, drawn up by the Convention’s Praesidium, in order to exert its influence on the final compromise. The aim of this exercise is to arrive at compromise proposals in the European Parliament on the various parts of the draft treaty which can serve as a basis for a broad compromise within the Convention.
"We will thereby send a strong political signal which will affirm Parliament’s position", said the chair (...)

Greek health minister backs "shared competence"

Greek presidency: 1 January - 20 June 2003
Mr Costas Stefanis, Greek Minister of Health and Welfare has emphasised his government’s support regarding the position of Public Health in the European Union Treaties. On Monday 27 January 2003 on the occasion of the exchange of views between Mr Stefanis and the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy in the European Parliament he expressed his commitment to pushing for health as a (...)

April 2003, More Competences for EU on Public Health

In order to build a Europe of Health, action should be taken in a number of important areas, for example, in the context of communicable diseases and the threat of bioterrorism, says EU Commissioner David Byrne, in an interview for the EurActiv.com online newspaper.

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 17-18 March

The European Convention is entering a busy time.
On the 17-18 March the Plenary met to present draft articles 38-40 on the Union Finances and article 31 on the area of Freedom, Security and Justice and to debate the protocols on the principles of subsidiarity and proporcionality (Summary report of the meeting)
The Convention met in an informal plenary session on 26 March 2003 to discuss the tabled amendments to the first 7 draft articles initially presented by the Praesidium in early (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 5 March

In a follow-up to the email briefing on Friday 28 February 2003, please find below some notes from the Convention plenary "informal" session of Wednesday 5th of March 2003: Debate on articles 8-16, presided by Vice-president Mr Giuliano Amato, PES.
In order to structure the debate, the Praesidium suggested that the discussion focus on a set of questions on each article. The written questions on articles 11, 12 and 15 were as follows:
Exclusive competences, article 11
(a) Should the (...)

March 2003, Romano Prodi Launches Internet Debate on «Penelope»

President of the European Commission Romano Prodi launched an Internet debate with the public on a potential Constitution for Europe based on the working document "Penelope".
Prodi and the experts who are drawing up the document personally respond to comments and proposals from the public on issues such as democracy, justice, and monetary policy.
The debate as the Convention discussed the draft articles of the future Constitutional Treaty. The online discussion is part of the "Debate on (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 27-28 February

On Thursday 27 and Friday 28 February, the Convention met in Plenary session at the European Parliament in Brussels to debate the first 16 draft articles of the Constitutional Treaty.
The first 16 draft articles were published during the previous Plenary Session of the Convention (6-7 February).
Then the Convention members had until the 17 February to submit their amendments. Due to the large number of amendments (1147 amendments) this deadline became just indicative and more amendments (...)

February 2003, Amendments to first draft Articles 1-16 of the Constitutional Treaty

The deadline was Monday 17 February for Members of the Convention of Europe to submit amendments to the Praesidium’s draft Articles 1-16 of the Constitutional Treaty.
EPHA and many of its members had lobbied for public health to be included in Article 3 : Objectives of the EU and for Public Health to remain a shared competence for Member States and the Union (Article 12).
More than 1000 contributions were made by Convention Members, which are gradually being posted onto the Convention (...)

February 2003, Health stakeholders call for health priority in the EU

The EU Health Policy Forum is a grouping of 45 health stakeholders including NGOs, health professionals, academic researchers, patient groups, hospital managers, trades unions, social insurance partners and industry. The EU Health Policy Forum has agreed this joint statement expressing concern that public health has not been adequately considered and addressed in the Convention thus (...)

February 2003, Conclusions of Social Europe Working Group

Mr Katiforis presented to the Plenary session of 6/7 February 2003 the Report of the WG on Social Europe with the recommendations of including ’public health’ into Article 3 and strengthening Article 152.
During the debate, Mr Katiforis emphasised the strong support for strengthening the EU competence on Public Health, stating that the European Commission had convincingly pointed out the need for stronger legal basis for EU action specifically regarding communicable diseases, bioterrorism (...)

Briefing Note: Convention Plenary, 6-7 February

The agenda was as follows:
Thursday 6th February, 15:00h
1. Presentation by the Praesidium of an initial draft set of articles of Part I of the Constitutional Treaty
2. Presentation by Mr Katiforis of the report by Working Group XI on Social Europe, debate (CONV 516/03)
Friday 7th February, 9:30h
3. The regional and local dimension (CONV 518/03)
4. Question time
5. Other business
1. Convention President Mr Valerie Giscard d’Estaign presented the new draft articles 1 to 16 of the (...)

February 2003, EPHA members keep up the pressure on the convention

The Convention Praesidium published a new draft of the first 16 articles of the Constitutional Treaty at the early February Plenary session.
Convention members were invited to comment or amend these articles by the deadline of Monday 17 February. The draft document did not take into account the conclusions of the WG on Social Europe and particularly their references on health.
EPHA sent an alert to members calling for advocacy towards the Convention members to support the inclusion of the (...)