Tough task ahead to meet Convention timetable

Date: 03/04/03

By Martin Banks

JEAN-LUC Dehaene, vice-chairman of the Convention on Europe's future, has admitted the forum faces a tough task completing its work by its end-of-June deadline.

Senior Convention members, including its chairman Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, have suggested continuing their work - begun in early 2002 - into the autumn of 2003, to allow more time for debate on some of the EU's crucial institutional questions.

The tight timetable means the Convention will have to consider controversial issues such as the EU's foreign policy framework during, or shortly after, the war against Iraq - a conflict which has already generated a political crisis in the Union.

Yet Dehaene says that, while it will not be easy, he remains confident that the 105-member body will complete its work by the end of June.

Giscard will hold a debate on the EU's institutions - including the possible creation of the post of president of the European Council - with the 15 heads of state and government in Athens on 16 April.

There, EU leaders are expected to tell Giscard that the Convention must complete its work according to the original timetable, set out at the Laeken summit at the end of 2001.

Speaking at a Brussels meeting of the European Economic and Social Committee on Tuesday, Dehaene, a former Belgian prime minister, said Convention members expect to see a final draft constitutional treaty in early May. This will then leave them just a few weeks to "fine-tune" the treaty, he added.

"Completing our task by 30 June will be hard work but, by then, I expect we should have made our choices on most of the big issues. The next few weeks will be the decisive period," Dehaene said.

As the Convention enters the final phase of deliberations, it is still unclear how decisions will be made.

Dehaene ruled out the possibility of forum members being allowed to vote on the treaty's articles if they are unable to reach a broad agreement.

He said: "Voting is out of the question. There does not necessarily have to be unanimity on the treaty. Rather, we are looking for consensus and we shall be devoting all our efforts towards reaching a consensus."

The draft treaty will be considered by EU governments at an intergovernmental conference, probably starting in the autumn. Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi wants the whole process wrapped up by the end of the Italian EU presidency in December, to allow for a symbolic signing of a new Treaty of Rome.

Jean-Luc Dehaene, vice-chairman of the Convention on Europe's future, has admitted the forum faces a tough task completing its work by its end-of-June 2003 deadline.