By ratifying the Treaty of Nice in their turn, the people of Ireland have given the final green light for the entry of some ten new members into the European Union by June 2004. But how will this greater Europe of 25 members work? Everyone is agreed on one point, namely that the current rules, devised forty years ago for the little six-member Common Market, are entirely inappropriate for a political union of two dozen states with a total population of 450 million. What powers should be assigned to the European level at a time when France has finally decided to bring power closer to the people, moving in the opposite yet complementary direction of decentralisation? How can Europe be given its own democratically elected governors in place of the national leaders who currently govern it – and govern it badly – during their overtime hours?

In order to answer these questions, a veritable continental constituent assembly, the Convention on the Future of Europe, has been established under the chairmanship of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Members of Parliament from all the major political parties of 28 European countries are working there with the aim of giving Europe a genuine constitution at the beginning of the 21st century, an instrument comparable to that produced by the American Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787.

The final draft will be submitted in June of next year for governments to examine in the course of the following year, culminating in a decision by the people, probably in 2004. Our aim is to have a referendum held on a single day throughout Europe, to organise a real debate across the continent and to ensure that this decision is not taken by the insiders alone but by the people themselves.

Alain Lamassoure, 22 October 2002