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INTERGROUPE
CONSTITUTION EUROPEENNE
 
Save enlargement and strive for the Constitution
 
The political agreement which the EU 15 achieved with difficulty in Nice last December gave enlargement the green light from 2003 – 2004 on. But it is a merely formal green light, as President Prodi has rightly pointed out, with the institutions being neither more efficient nor more democratic. 
After the Irish referendum, the European Community lingers over formal and byzantine discussions, for fear of putting the ratification of an unsatisfactory Treaty in danger. 
Forgetting that, united, Europe could guarantee a better protection of human rights and improved respect for the environment, be richer due to its cultural diversity, be a world-wide example of combining globalisation and social solidarity. Instead, it insists on denying itself the necessary means. 
The only way to avoid a dead end is to surpass Nice and pursue the two truly important challenges : EU enlargement and the European Constitution. 
We cannot let the European agenda be paralysed by the ratification procedures of an opaque Treaty which, as the Irish referendum has proven, is almost impossible to defend.
We have to respect the political commitments on enlargement and work on the necessary reforms immediately, without waiting until 2004.
The Intergroup European Constitution within European Parliament appeals to the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council :
? to launch a constituent process immediately, in order to endow the Union with the democratic institutions it needs and which the Treaty of Nice does not give her;
? to bring about the Member States' agreement, before December, on a new method for the reform of the EU - a real constitutional Convention composed not only by diplomats, but also by national and European parliamentarians and by representatives of the Member States and of the Commission. This Convention shall be more than a simple discussion forum : it shall draft a coherent constitutional project.
Such is the responsibility of the Belgian government, which takes over the Presidency of the Union today. It has our confidence today but will be judged by its results tomorrow.
 Strasbourg, 4 July 2001
Contact : Bruno BOISSIERE +32-2.508.30.30
Steering committee : Carlos CARNERO GONZALEZ (PSE, E), Andrew DUFF (ELDR, UK), Monica FRASSONI (Verts, B), Alain LAMASSOURE (PPE, F), Jo LEINEN (PSE, D), Cecilia MALMSTRÖM (ELDR, S), Mario MANTOVANI (PPE, I), Mihail PAPAYANNAKIS (GUE, GR)