Doc. 9157

3 July 2001

Contribution of the Council of Europe to the future constitution making process of the European Union

Motion for a resolution

presented by Mr Gross and others

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only the members who have signed it

      Taking into consideration that

1.       the European Parliament and the new European Union Presidency want to replace the intergovernmental conference model "behind closed doors" by a "convention" model, which has been successfully applied in the elaboration of the Charter of Fundamental Rights 1999-2000 and in which the Council of Europe was represented by two observers, one from the General Secretariat and one from the European Court of Human Rights;

2.       the Treaty of Nice envisages the construction of a “new architecture of Europe” until 2004;

3.       the Belgian EU Presidency wants to establish the new "convention plus" model at the end of this year at the summit in Laeken;

4.       the member states of the Council of Europe and particularly those who aspire to EU membership have a great interest in this emerging new European constitution;

5.       the political and constitutional-based integration of Europe from the Atlantic to the Caspian Sea was the original project of the pioneers of the European integration and the founding fathers of the Council of Europe,

The Assembly decides to ensure the participation of a delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in the constitution-making body designed as the "convention plus model", giving it the right to speak and to make contributions without the right to vote and to see to it that this proposition is taken up by the presidents of the political groups in the European Parliament and in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Signed : ¹

Gross, Switzerland, SOC

Atkinson, United Kingdom, EDG

Bartoš, Czech Republic, EDG

Bindig, Germany, SOC

Björck, Sweden, EDG

Cilevics, Latvia, SOC

de Puig, Spain, SOC

Derycke, Belgium, SOC

Hornhues, Germany, EPP/CD

Iwinski, Poland, SOC

Jansson, Finland, LDR

Judd, United Kingdom, SOC

Jurgens, Netherlands, SOC

Landsbergis, Lithuania, EDG

Marty, Switzerland, SOC

Ragnarsdóttir, Iceland, EDG

Shakhtakhtinskaya, Azerbaijan, EDG

Stoisits, Austria, SOC

van der Linden, Netherlands, EPP/CD

Varela i Serra, Spain, LDR

Vermot-Mangold, Switzerland, SOC

Zapfl-Helbling, Switzerland, EPP/CD

¹        SOC: Socialist Group

      EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party

      EDG: European Democratic Group

      LDR : Liberal, Democratic and Reformers’ Group

      UEL: Group of the Unified European Left

      NR: not registered in a group