EU: The president of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, has defended the draft articles of a constitutional treaty presented to the Convention this week. From Denis Staunton, in Brussels
Speaking in Brussels after yesterday's plenary session, Mr Giscard said the draft text - the first 16 articles of the treaty - set out clearly the values, aims and powers of the EU.
But he acknowledged that some of the articles were poorly worded and that the draft would be revised following submissions from members of the Convention. "It will be modified in the final text," he said.
Some members of the Convention, notably the British government's representative, Mr Peter Hain, have complained that the draft articles do not accurately reflect the debate at the Convention.
But the Government's representative, Mr Dick Roche, welcomed the text as a useful basis for discussion.
"The benefit is that now people are going to start crystallising their positions. This is not a threat; it is a very initial text. It's something that has been put up and now we have to respond to it," he said.
Mr Hain expressed outrage at a reference in the first article of the text to the EU administering certain common competences "on a federal basis".
Mr Roche was more relaxed about the use of the word "federal", saying that the document as a whole was not federalist in tone. "This is not a charter for a federal Europe. If I were a federalist, I would be much more disappointed than if I were not," he said.
Mr Roche acknowledged that a reference to the EU's competence to "co-ordinate the economic policies of the member-states" could be interpreted as a threat to national sovereignty over taxation.
But he said that the Government was determined that a new treaty would not open the way to tax harmonisation and would ensure that the final text is watertight in that regard.
The Green TD, Mr John Gormley, welcomed the draft's clarity of expression but complained that it did not reflect the debate in the Convention and its working groups. He said that Mr Giscard had effectively hijacked the Convention in order to impose his own vision of Europe's future.
"We are being propelled along a Giscardian path here. Giscard all along has had a blueprint in his mind. Giscard and his friends on the Praesidium are calling the shots here," he said.