Belgian police have mounted a massive security operation to prevent violent protests at today's meeting of European Union leaders outside Brussels. Thousands of trade unionists marched through the city centre yesterday afternoon to demand more jobs.
Yesterday's protest was peaceful, but Belgian police have deported 20 Dutch activists who were carrying knives, gas masks and scanners that would allow them to listen to police radio frequencies.
The Belgian authorities hope to avoid a repetition of the violent scenes that accompanied an EU summit in Gothenburg last summer. This weekend's summit is expected to be dominated by the start of a two-year debate on Europe's future that is due to culminate in a new, treaty-making conference in 2004.
The leaders have already agreed to set up a convention made up of representatives from governments, national parliaments, the European Parliament and the Commission. At the end of the Nice summit last year the leaders identified four issues for discussion.
They are: simplifying the EU treaties, clarifying the division of powers between Brussels, member-states and region, giving national parliaments a clearer role in EU affairs and determining the status of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Some member-states, including France and Germany, want a written constitution for Europe and the removal of national vetoes from a number of policy areas. Ireland takes a more cautious approach and is wary of reopening the question of extending qualified majority voting to such policy areas as taxation.
The leaders will issue a declaration tomorrow, outlining the agenda for the convention, but they have yet to agree on a final text. Some member-states felt that the initial draft drawn up by the Belgian EU Presidency adopted too explicitly federalist a tone. They complained that some of the questions for discussion had been drafted in such a way as to presuppose a particular conclusion.
The Belgian Prime Minister, Mr Guy Verhofstadt, has visited all EU capitals in recent weeks, and the language of the latest draft is understood to be considerably toned down.
Most EU diplomats expect, however, that discussion of the declaration will last well into tomorrow afternoon.
The leaders must also choose a president for the convention, and four names have been in circulation around Brussels in recent days.
They are the former French prime minister, Mr ValΘry Giscard d'Estaing, the former Commission president, Mr Jacques Delors, the former Italian prime minister, Mr Giuliano Amato, and the former Finnish president, Mr Martti Ahtisaari.
Many critics fear that choosing Mr Giscard would signal a throwback to an earlier era, and Mr Delors's appointment would almost certainly be vetoed by Britain.
The Finnish government has made it clear that it is more interested in ensuring that the summit chooses Helsinki as the site of the new European Food Authority than in promoting Mr Ahtisaari as convention president.
The leaders will begin their discussions today by assessing the action they have taken to counter terrorism since September 11th.
They are expected to approve the introduction of a European arrest warrant that will make extradition within the EU automatic for some offences.