Hoofdlijnen van voorstel voorzitterschap voor IGC (en)

New values

The Presidency proposes the introduction of two new Union values: The Right of Minorities and Equality between men and women. These two values are to be added to existing Article I-2 on the Union's values.

Institutional issues

On the structure of the Council, the Italian Presidency has proposed a system of council formations where each formation is presided by a team representing the member states in a system of equal rotation (except the GAC and the FAC). It is proposed that a team consist of 3 member states for a period of 12 months. The GAC should assure the overall coherence of the council formations. From this it follows that the proposal for a single legislative council has been given up.

On the Foreign Minister, the Italian presidency proposes giving the Council of Ministers the possibility of deciding by qualified majority when acting on a proposal from the Foreign Minister. The document also contains other clarifications on the role of the Foreign Minister in the Commission.

Regarding the composition of the Commission, there is no new wording in the Presidency's proposal as concerns the role and function of the non-voting commissioners. The Presidency continues to support the Convention's proposal on this issue, but is also aware of many delegations' dissatisfaction, so prepares for discussion in Naples.

The Presidency only proposes technical amendments to the European Parliament.

Financial perspectives

On the financial perspectives, the budget and multilateral surveillance, the Presidency notes that a number of delegations have strong objections to the provisions and wording in the draft constitutional treaty. However, the Presidency has chosen not to propose amendments to the Convention text, so as not to disturb the balanced approach of the Convention.

Rewritten articles:

The article on structured co-operation sets out that there should be a minimum number of participants, that the first list of participating states should be adopted by a qualified majority in the Council no later then three months after the entry into force of the Constitution. Entry at a later stage of a new country into the structured cooperation should be adopted by a qualified majority of all countries (in the present draft it is a qualified majority only of states participating in the structured cooperation).

The general bridging clauses (often called the passerelles) have been rewritten and moved from I-24.4 to IV-7. Further more, a passage has been added making it possible for a (still undefined) number of national parliaments to block the use of the bridging clause.

A new procedure for revision of the Constitution's third part has been proposed. It entails that changing an internal policy in part three would not require the convening of a convention and an intergovernmental conference, but only a proposal put forward by the European Parliament, the Commission or a member state. The proposal shall be adopted by a qualified majority in the European Council and ratified by all member states according to their national constitutional requirements.

New articles

The Italian presidency has proposed a range of new horizontal and "protective" clauses:

On criminal law it is stated that EU-rules should respect the differences in the national legal systems - especially the "common law" systems. Furthermore, a decision can be directed to the European Council if it creates special problems for a country.

A horizontal social clause is proposed incorporating social goals into all policies.

A protective clause saying that rights given by EU law to social security due to the free movement of labour shall not effect the overall economic balance of the member states' social systems.

No harmonisation of areas mentioned in III-107 (social policy) is allowed.

The Council shall not act by qualified majority under art. III-62.2 if the basic financial regime of a member state is in question.

Tourism becomes a new supplementary competence (I-16) with the goal of exchanging experience. Harmonisation is prohibited.

And...

The EU can decide to allow member states to accede to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights by a qualified majority (in present draft, requires unanimity).