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EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The majority of EU citizens remain utterly unaware that a body of 105 top politicians gathered in Brussels, over a period of 15 months to draw up a new Constitution, a new survey has revealed.

Just 39% of EU citizens in the 25 current and future member states have ever heard of the Convention on the Future of Europe - and that is 7 percentage points less than in June when citizens were asked the same question.

While there were no large majorities in favour of some of the big innovations of the treaty, such as a foreign minister (53%) and a permanent President of the Council (56%), two thirds of citizens say they would like a European Constitution.

But though the average is high, there are large discrepancies between countries.

While Italians (83%), Hungarians (83%) and Spaniards (79%) are happy to have a Constitution, Swedes, Poles, Lithuanians, Britons, Danes and Slovenians are rather less enthusiastic - all coming in with less than 50%.

Moreover, 45% never intend to read the Constitutional text anyway.

A Commission spokesman said he was "disappointed" with the results of the poll, which were made public on Monday (10 November).

More debate

However, the Commission is hoping that more debate in each of the member states will fuel knowledge and awareness.

Greece was held up as a good example. Awareness of the Convention among Greek citizens was 81% in June when Athens was holding the rotating EU Presidency but fell massively to 49% during this survey, after national media attention stopped focusing on the EU.

"There is an issue here for us, for national decision-makers", said the Commission spokesperson.

"Such a general lack of information could jeopardise acceptance of the Constitution".

And acceptance of the Constitution is the next political hot potato to face the EU after the Constitution is finalised.

Some 49% of those asked felt that there should be a referendum on the Constitution while an additional 36% thought it would be "useful but not essential".

The Constitution is currently being debated by member states in an intergovernmental conference - this is expected to finish next month.