The European Union needs both a new constitution and a full-time president, British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw has said.
Writing in the Economistmagazine, Mr Straw criticised the nearest thing the EU has to a constitution, the series of international treaties that set out its governing principles.
"There's no point reading the EU Treaties in the hope of illumination," he wrote. "While the practical achievements of the EU have been profound, the union's treaties fail almost every test of clarity and brevity. These complex overlapping texts make the case for a single coherent constitution for the EU".
A possible European Union constitution is one of the issues being considered this month by the 105-member Convention on the Future of Europe, chaired by former French president Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing.
Mr Straw also argued for a full-time president of the European Council, the body where all the member governments meet and where power ultimately resides in the EU.
Mr Straw said the council should be setting the "strategic agenda" for the EU but was hampered by the fact that its presidency switches to another country every six months. This stop-go comes at the expense of consistency and efficiency," he said.
Straw said his vision of a European Union constitution would "clarify for befuddled voters the roles and responsibilities of its institutions". He praised the "pocket-sized" constitutions of the United States and United Nations.