BRUSSELS: The Government has proposed amendments to all 16 draft articles of a constitutional treaty being discussed at the Convention on the Future of Europe.
Many of the proposed amendments are minor drafting changes aimed at making the text clearer and more accessible to citizens.
But the Government's representative at the convention, Mr Dick Roche, has tabled substantial amendments to articles concerning economic co-ordination. The amendments emphasise that member-states should retain responsibility for the conduct of their economic policies.
Under the Government's proposal, a paragraph stating that "the Union shall have competence to co-ordinate the economic policies of the Member States" would be replaced by the words "the Member States shall co-ordinate their economic policies within the Union".
Another paragraph, stating that "the Member States shall conduct their economic policies, taking account of the common interest, so as to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Union", would be replaced by the words "the Member States shall regard their economic policies as a matter of common concern and shall co-ordinate them so as to contribute to the achievements of the objectives of the Union".
Other proposed amendments emphasise that member-states retain responsibility for foreign policy and that the Charter of Fundamental Rights "shall not affect the Union's competences as defined elsewhere in this Constitution".
Mr Roche, who was in Brussels yesterday to chair a meeting of national representatives at the convention, complained that the convention's chairman, Mr Valery Giscard d'Estaing, had only allowed members a few days to propose amendments. More than 500 substantial amendments have been proposed to the draft articles.
"There are concerns about how we are going to get the next set of articles. We don't understand the process," Mr Roche said.
The Government is working with a group of small member-states to agree basic principles on which a reform of EU institutions should be based. The group, known as the Friends of the Community Method, includes the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Austria and Ireland. Some candidate countries from central and eastern Europe have been invited to join the group.
The Government wants the institutions to reflect the EU's dual nature, "as a Union of peoples and sovereign Member States" and to respect and preserve the equality of all member-states. It wants the process for nominating the Commission president to be more open and believes that the president should be chosen by an electoral college composed of members of the European Parliament and of national parliaments.
Mr Roche said that the rotating presidency should be preserved but that its functioning could be improved by creating team presidencies of two or three countries that would share the administrative burden. Most small member-states believe that almost all issues in the Council of Ministers should be decided by qualified majority voting but the Government argues that any decision to abolish national vetoes should be judged on a case-by-case basis.
Mr Roche said that the rotating presidency would work more effectively if the Commission drew up a plan of work for a period of up to five years, which each successive presidency would implement.
"A chain of fish and chip shops would have a plan for three to five years. It's quite clear that the EU needs one too," he said.