Contribution by S.Kalniete to the Convention: "On the principles of drafting the Constitutional Treaty"
The EU Convention has reached the very important stage of drafting the Constitutional Treaty of the European Union. Several issues pertaining to the working methods used in the above drafting deserve careful consideration:
(a) First and foremost, appropriate procedure should be found to reflect in the draft Constitutional Treaty the consensus found during the working groups and plenary debates.
(b) It is next to impossible to give coherent opinion on the draft Treaty at this moment as it appears part by part. If the Convention wants to achieve credible results, Members should be able to consider complete text of the draft Treaty. Therefore Members of the Convention should be informed about the procedure and precise schedule of drafting the Constitutional Treaty - in what sequence the Articles of the Treaty are drafted and when could one expect the next ones.
Members of the EU Convention reserve the right of amending the draft Articles after examination of the complete text of the draft Constitution.
(c) Taking into account that examination of the draft Treaty Articles is a time-consuming and complex work of vital importance to the national interests of each country, deadlines for the submission of the national position on the draft Treaty Articles should be extended.
It is of equal importance to have all the necessary time for discussing the Draft Treaty Articles within the EU Convention itself.