Giscard unveils first part of EU draft constitution

The head of a forum mapping out the European Union's future shape unveiled the first articles of a draft constitution yesterday, but ran into immediate charges from Eurosceptics of seeking a centralised superstate.

Valery Giscard D'Estaing, a former French president, said the draft set out in clear and easily understandable language the values, aims and powers of the EU, which will expand from 15 members to nearly 30 in the coming years.

"Our aim is to allow citizens to understand immediately the essential characteristics of the Union, why it was set up, what it does and what it plans to achieve," Giscard told a plenary session of the forum, the Convention on the Future of Europe.

The first of the 16 articles published refers to a Union of states and of peoples who have come together to coordinate policies and pool some "common competences in a federal way".

The word "federal" is anathema to Eurosceptics, especially in Britain, who see it as heralding the end of the nation state. But in fact it describes the present state of affairs, where Community law takes precedence in a number of policy areas.

The text makes clear that the Union can only act in areas where it is specifically empowered to do so by the constitution. Areas where the EU has exclusive competence include ensuring free movement of people, goods and services as well as customs policy, trade and monetary policy in the 12-nation eurozone.

The EU would share competence with member states in a range of other areas including agriculture, energy, social policy, public health and justice and home affairs, the text said.

In areas such as industrial policy, employment, education, sport and culture, the Union would have only a supporting or complementary role, with member states having the main say.

The section on citizenship says all EU citizens would be citizens of the Union as well as of their own country, with the right to vote in European Parliament and local elections in any other member state where they may reside. This proved too much for veteran Danish Eurosceptic Jens-Peter Bonde, a member of the European Parliament.

"This is a one-way street to an EU state. This track will lead us to a deeper level of integration than in the United States," he said in a statement.

"Bavarians have joint nationality (of the state of Bavaria and of Germany), but it is the federal, German nationality that predominates," he said.

David Heathcote-Amery, a British Conservative member of the Convention, echoed Bonde's fears. "This (text) will create an even less democratic EU, full of politicians and even more remote from the ordinary voter," he said, homing in on the use of the word "federal" in Article 1.

Members of the forum, which groups national and European lawmakers and officials, have until February 17 to comment or propose amendments to the text drafted by the Praesidium steering the Convention's work. Some members complained this was not enough time and suggested Giscard was trying to ensure that his views prevailed in the final draft. Bonde spoke of "enlightened despotism".

British government representative Peter Hain said the articles presented did not sufficiently reflect the conclusions of working groups contributing to the draft constitution.

Giscard defended his method, saying time was very limited. The Convention aims to present a final draft constitution to the 15 EU governments by late June. The governments will have the final say on the text. Shrugging off Eurosceptic complaints, he also highlighted such aspects of the draft text as Article 2, which reads: "The Union respects the national identity of its member states."

Alluding to the Iraq crisis, which has exposed big divisions among EU member states, Giscard commented drily that this was perhaps not the best time to dwell on Article 14, which reads: "Member states support actively and without reservation the common foreign and security policy of the Union in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity."