The EU Convention

RESULTS OF THE CONVENTION

• Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe
• Report from the Convention Presidency to the President of the European Council 
• Rome Declaration  

1. News

2. The European Convention

• General information about the Convention
• Representatives of Latvia at the Convention
• Summary of final reports of the working groups
• Information about the schedule of activities of the Convention
• Transcripts of Plenary Meetings of the Convention

3. Agenda of the Convention

4. Draft Constitutional Treaty of the European Union

5. Latvia's position on the draft Constitutional Treaty of the European Union

6. Speeches by representatives of Latvia at the Convention 

NEWS

Draft EU Constitutional Treaty submitted to Italian Presidency
21.07.2003.

On 18 July 2003, President of the European Convention Valéry Giscard d'Estaing submitted the draft EU Constitutional Treaty to the President of the European Council, Prime Minister of Italy Silvio Berlusconi. Having prepared the draft Treaty for the forthcoming Intergovernmental Conference, the European Convention has formally concluded its work and fulfilled the mandate of the Laeken European Council.

Final Plenary Meeting of European Convention Held in Brussels
10.07.2003.

From 9 to 10 July 2003, the final plenary meeting of the European Convention was held in Brussels. At the plenary meeting, debates were held on Part III of the draft Constitutional Treaty in relation to EU policies and their implementation, in order to prepare technical amendments to the draft Treaty in accordance with the mandate of the Thessaloniki European Council.

Work of the European Convention on Part I of the Draft Constitutional Treaty Concludes
13.06.2003.

Today, 13 June 2003, marks the conclusion of the European Convention. The Convention has been rated as an even greater success than previous Intergovernmental Conferences. The results achieved on the whole satisfy the interests of all countries. The final draft of the Constitutional Treaty is balanced and takes into account a broad and varied range of interests, among them those of Latvia. The main thing all countries have agreed upon is that the European Union will remain a union of national states. Crucial agreement has also been reached on issues relating to EU institutions.

Previous news archive

THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION

1. General information about the Convention 

The task of the Convention

is to raise the ideas and visions to formulate proposals for the next Intergovernmental Conference that will be held after the closing of the Convention in 2003 or 2004. The Convention is not supposed to adopt any binding acts. The Convention Chairman will give report to each European Council meeting.

The agreement on proposals is to be made by unanimity; still there is a possibility to submit to the Intergovernmental Conference different proposals for one and the same issue.

The member states and candidate states are represented by:

2 members of parliament and 1 government representative. In addition, there are 2 representatives of the European Commission and 16 members of the European Parliament who are also involved in the work of the Convention. The Economic and Social Committee (three representatives), the Committee of the Regions (six representatives), the social partners (three representatives) and the European Ombudsman are invited to attend as observers.

The Praesidium

of the Convention is composed of the Convention President (the former President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing), two Vice-President (former Italian Prime Minister Guiliano Amato and former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene), and 10 representatives of the Convention: the representatives of the Governments of Spain, Denmark and Greece (countries holding the Council Presidency during the time of work of the Convention), two European Parliament representatives, two representatives of national Parliaments, and two Commission representatives.

Forum

In order for the debate to be broadly based and involve all citizens, a Forum is opened for organizations representing civil society (the social partners, the business world, non-governmental organizations, academia, etc.). It takes the form of a structured network of organizations receiving regular information on the Convention's proceedings, and is "situated" on the home site of the Forum: http://europa.eu.int/futurum/forum_convention/how_en.htm

The status of the Candidate Countries

The European Council has decided that the candidate countries are to be allowed to participate in the Convention as full members, without, however, being able to prevent any consensus which may emerge among the Member States.

The mandate of the Convention

 According to the decision of the Member States and the Heads of Government in December 2001, the competency of the Convention is to prepare proposals for the revision of the EU Treaty and institutional reform. The Laeken Declaration identifies a list of questions (57), designed to inspire the work of the Convention. These can be divided into 4 main issues:

1) The role of the EU in the world;
2) Delimitation of powers between the EU and the Member States;
3) Simplification of Treaties;
4) EU institutional reforms.

2. Representatives of Latvia at the Convention 

The Government of Latvia is represented by

• Ms.Sandra Kalniete, Minister of Foreign Affairs, with the alternate
  Mr.Roberts Zīle, Minister for Transport.

The Representatives of the Parliament to the Convention are:

• Mr.Rihards Pīks (elected from the People's Party) with the alternate
  Mr.Guntars Krasts, Chair of the European Affairs Committee (elected from the TB/LNNK), and
• Ms. Liene Liepiņa with the alternate
  Mr.Arturs Krišjānis Kariņš (both elected from the New Era).

DRAFT CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 

1.Preliminary draft of the Constitutional Treaty

2.Draft of Articles and Protocols of the Constitutional Treaty

3. Latvia's position on the draft Constitutional Treaty of the European

Union

• Contribution by S.Kalniete to the Convention: "On the principles of drafting the Constitutional Treaty"

Suggestions of the Representatives of Latvian Government for amendments to the text of the Articles of the Treaty

• Suggestion of the representative of the Government of Latvia, Sandra Kalniete for amendment of Article I-7
• Suggestion of the representative of the Government of Latvia, Sandra Kalniete for amendment of Article I - 40
• Suggestion of the representative of the Government of Latvia, Sandra Kalniete for amendment of Article I - 43

Latvia's position on the Articles of the draft Constitutional Treaty of the European

Union

• Latvia's Suggestions for amendments of the Articles 1 and 5 of the Treaty
• Latvia's Suggestions for amendments of the Article 10 of the Treaty
• Latvia's Suggestions for amendments of the Article 12 of the Treaty
• Latvia's Suggestion for amendment of the text of the Article 29: Part I
• Latvia's Suggestion for amendment of Article 30: Part I
• Latvia's Suggestion for amendment of Article 2: Part II - Title B
• Latvia's Suggestion for amendment of Article 5: Part II - Title B
• Latvia's Suggestion for amendment of Article 20: Part II - Title B

4.Joint position of the nine smaller countries, Latvia included, on changes in the Chapter on Instituttions of the EU draft Constitutional Treaty

• Suggestion for amendment of Article 14
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 14 a
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 15
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 16
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 16 a
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 17
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 17 a
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 17 b
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 17 c
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 18
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 18 a
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 18 b
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 19
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 20
• Suggestion for amendment of Article X
• Suggestion for amendment of Article 21

5. Proposed Amendments to the text of the Articles of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe

PROPOSALS BY LATVIAN GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON ISSUES RELATING TO THE FUTURE OF THE EU

Joint position of the smaller EU member and candidate countries on the EU institutional reform

SPEECHES BY LATVIAN GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES ON ISSUES RELATING TO THE FUTURE OF THE EU 

• Intervention by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Ms. Sandra Kalniete, the representative of the Latvian government at the Convention Brussels, May 31, 2003 on the draft articles of the Constitutional treaty on the Economic governance 

• Intervention by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Ms. Sandra Kalniete, the representative of the Latvian government at the Convention Brussels, May 31, 2003 on the draft articles on enhanced cooperation

• Intervention by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia Ms. Sandra Kalniete, the representative of the Latvian government at the Convention Brussels, May 31, 2003 on the draft articles of the Constitutional treaty on the Charter of Fundamental Rights

• Speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia
  H. E. Mrs. Sandra Kalniete, the representative of the Latvian government
  at the Convention Brussels, May 16, 2003

• Speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia H. E. Mrs. Sandra Kalniete, the representative of the Latvian government at the Convention Brussels, May 15, 2003

• Speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia H. E. Mrs. Sandra Kalniete, the representative of the Latvian government at the Convention Brussels, April 25, 2003

• Speech by Mr. Roberts Zīle, the alternative representative of the Latvian government at the Convention, on the Finances of the Union Brussels, April 4, 2003

• Statement by Mr. Roberts Zīle, the alternative representative of the Government of the Republic of Latvia at the Convention
  March 17, 2003

• Speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia
  H. E. Mrs. Sandra Kalniete to the European Policy Centre seminar
  "Meet the New Member States" 27 February 2003

• Speech by Latvia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, representative of the Latvian Government to the European Convention Sandra Kalniete at the meeting of the Convention on the articles of the EU's Constitutional Treaty on 27.02. 2003 in Brussels (in French)

• Speech by the Latvian Minister of Foreign Affairs at the meeting of government representatives to the European Convention 21.02.2003

• Address by Mr Rihards Piks, representative of Latvia at the European Convention, on a preliminary draft constitutional treaty, European Convention, Brussels, 28 October 2002