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Brussels, November 2003 The Green-8
urgently call on the IGC and the Heads of State to improve the draft
European Constitution so that it reflects the expectations of European
citizens with regards to sustainable development, quality of life and
environmental protection. Of main
concern to civil society groups are the outdated policy chapters in Part III, which were drawn -
largely unchanged - from the existing European Community Treaty without
proper discussion in the Convention. As they stand, EU policies like
agriculture, transport, energy and development conflict with the EU’s
overall objectives of sustainable development and protection and
improvement of the environment. The chapter
on Agriculture, for example,
still defines an “increase in agricultural productivity” as a key aim
without even mentioning the need for sustainable development in rural
areas. The chapter on the EU’s Common Commercial Policy still sees
further trade liberalisation as an aim in itself, rather than as a means
for promoting sustainable development. It expands the European
Commission's power in the controversial field of foreign direct
investment without matching this with the necessary parliamentary
control. The Green-8
have made concrete suggestions for amendments to the text of the draft
Constitution in their publication “Towards a Green EU Constitution”[1]. The
Green-8 urge Heads of State to make these changes now in order to avoid a
Constitution which has an antiquated set of provisions reflecting the
priorities of Europe 50 years ago. The Green-8
disagree with the argument of time-pressure to prevent the necessary
debate on these policy chapters. In the event that Union policies are not
properly addressed during the IGC, we insist upon a timetable for a
revision of this part of the Constitution. In order to facilitate this,
we support proposals to find a more flexible
revision procedure for Part III e.g. at least 2/3 super-qualified
majority instead of unanimity),
provided that the horizontal clauses of Part III are moved to Part I and
are not subject to an easier revision procedure, since they define
essential principles for policy development. The procedure should be
similar to that of the Convention for Europe. It is very
regrettable that the substantive reform of the outdated Euratom
Community has not yet been addressed. The proposed continuation of the Euratom Treaty would undermine the standing of the
Constitution as the basic law of the Union, and would allow the contradiction
between the new and old Treaties to persist. We therefore call on the
European Council in December to initiate a fundamental review of Euratom in 2004 (as proposed by Austria and Ireland),
with a view to ending Euratom in its present
form, no later than its 50th anniversary in 2007. --- end --- |
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