EU summit first test for Giscard’s Herculean task to sell constitution

Date: 19/06/03

Certain leaders are preparing their offensive against key proposals in the draft constitution, writes Dana Spinant

"I WILL go to present in your name to the European Council in Thessaloniki on 20 June our common work as the foundation of a future treaty instituting a constitution for Europe."

Thus did Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, his voice trembling with emotion, declare on Friday 13 June a quasi-unanimous support for a draft constitution, over which the Convention on the future of the EU has laboured for 16 months.

Giscard's presentation of this draft will be the highlight of the Thessaloniki summit - the last gathering of its kind to be held on Greek soil. After the constitution enters into force, probably in 2006, all European Council meetings will move to Brussels.

The former French president pledged before his Convention fellows to forcefully sell the draft constitution to EU heads of state and government gathering this weekend. He wants to ensure the text will not be "massacred" during negotiations between governments (the intergovernmental conference, IGC) starting in October, which will adopt a final draft.

"I will tell them [government leaders]: the closer you remain to our text, so extensively discussed and reflected upon, the less difficult will be the task of your [intergovernmental] conference," the former French president said.

However, Giscard faces a Herculean task.

After having convinced 105 Convention members to back a single text, to avoid presenting a set of options which would have been easier to ignore by member states, the Frenchman must now convince the government leaders that the deals he succeeded in striking within the Convention are the only way to organize the enlarged EU. He is confident that "the final text will be very close to that of the Convention".

"We put forward a project which gathered a quasi-general backing. It would be a political mistake to bring it into question. It would be perceived as a step back by the public opinion," he told the press after closing the Convention's proceedings.

And still, only member states are entitled to adopt treaties - the Convention is not - and they are, legally at least, free to rewrite the European constitution from scratch.

However, insiders believe this is unlikely and would be at any rate unwise. The Convention, on which member states have also been represented, worked in an open and democratic manner, by involving not only national parliamentarians (normally excluded from EU treaty drafting) but also representatives of civil society. The draft is, politically, seen as the fruit of a democcratic debate of the Union in a larger sense.

Traditionally, treaties are compiled in the EU through secret diplomatic negotiations. Therefore, ignoring the draft or "massacring" its text would not be an intelligent political option, one member of the Convention's secretariat said.

"Changes, yes, but cosmetic ones. It is unthinkable that they [member states] re-open the institutional package: they will never be able to agree again on a new institutional set-up," an insider close to Giscard said. Members of the Convention's inner circle, the praesidium, warned that the IGC will open a Pandora's box if it dismantles the equilibrium between the powers of the Union and those of member states, between small and large countries, as well as between the EU institutions.

Giscard's arm-wrestling with EU governments is set to start tomorrow (20 June), as a number of leaders are keen to launch their offensive against key proposals included in the Convention's text.

José María Aznar, the Spanish premier, is expected to voice opposition to changing the voting system in the Council of Ministers. His envoy to the Convention, Ana Palacio, was the only Convention member from the quasi-unanimity supporting the draft to spoil the solemn closing on Friday by saying: "Spain has a fundamental reservation on voting".

If Aznar speaks up against this, his Polish counterpart will follow him. Poland is on the same line with Spain on voting in the Council of Ministers, as the two countries enjoy equal advantages under the present system of voting.

And if the chorus of criticism is launched, Tony Blair, the British premier, will also add his voice, trying maybe to ring-fence the role of the future EU Foreign Minister. However, Giscard's main asset consists in the fact that, although the IGC will most likely start under the principle that everything is to be renegotiated, member states' representatives will soon realize the risk of such an approach.

"Imagine, at the IGC, that each of the 25 states puts forward 40 demands of changes to the text, including to the key provisions on institutions: they will soon realize that it is impossible to reach an agreement again.

"They will have no choice than go back to the initial proposal put forward by the Convention text," one Convention official said.

The summit's host, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, warned recently that the draft constitution is not to be taken lightly. "The Convention was not just an exercise for knowing what participants want", but "very serious preparation for reform," he said after meeting Romano Prodi, the Commission president, on 12 June in Brussels.

"Of course, each member state will be able to present its position, but the intergovernmental conference should not discuss all the problems again," he said.

Three top-level Convention members, who will also represent their countries on the conference, pledged to fight to protect the EU draft constitution during the IGC.

Foreign ministers of Germany and France, Joschka Fischer and Dominique de Villepin, as well as Italian deputy premier Gianfranco Fini promised their colleagues in the Convention to watch to ensure that their common proposal is not dismantled during negotiations between governments.

However, it remains to be seen whether member states are ready to accept that the draft - although "imperfect", as Giscard put it, is of great political importance, produced as it was in a more democratic way than ever before in the EU.

The Thessaloniki summit will be the first test.

Road-map to constitution approval:

• 20 June, Thessaloniki: Valéry Giscard d'Estaing presents draft constitution to government leaders
• 4 and 11 July: Convention fine-tunes parts III and IV of constitution
• October 2003: start of the intergovernmental conference (IGC)
• Before June 2004: IGC concludes, approving final constitution text
• 2004-2005: ratification across EU 25 through referenda or parliamentary vote
• 2006: expected entry into force of the European constitution

EU leaders gathered for the Summer European Council in Thessaloniki, Greece will discuss the European Convention's proposals on the future of the Union.