Laying the foundations for a united Europe

WILL Europe have a powerful president and a unified foreign policy? Will nations lose the right to set their own tax rates or implement social policy?

The answers will be revealed in the proposed constitution for the European Union, which is to be unveiled in Brussels this week.

The constitution is an ambitious project undertaken by the current 15 members in an effort to resolve a range of problems.

Its key proposals include: a president of the EU; a single foreign minister; a common foreign policy; and a charter of fundamental rights.

The major sticking point for Ireland tax harmonisation is not included. Our final position will depend on how far the rights of small countries have been protected.

For this reason, Ireland and other small countries are adamant the powers of the commission the union's civil service must not be overtaken by the council, which tends to be dominated by the larger member states.

The Government's representative on the convention, Europe Minister Dick Roche, believes there is still much work to do. "We have to closely examine all the detail ... and we will see if the necessary balance is maintained," he says.

The haggling over details has been intense, with Ireland involved in a number of groupings of smaller states with common interests.

The larger countries have fought for a structure where they will hold the balance of power. Every clause and comma is being examined and fought over, both in public, at the convention hearings, and in private telephone calls between prime ministers.

For the past 15 months the 105-member convention has been trawling thousands of proposals. They have listened to submissions from hundreds of political, civic and interest groups, and they have come up with a 148-page draft document.

The project is approaching a climax as the final constitution must be ready by June 20, when it will be formally presented to the EU leaders in Thessalonica.

For the past few weeks the core organising group, the Presidium, has been battling with the texts, trying desperately to find ways to win support from the leaders of member states.

Yesterday the legal experts finished working on the first of the constitution's five parts defining the structure of the union.

The Presidium, which includes former Taoiseach John Bruton, spent yesterday going through the details and will be presented with the drafts of the second and third parts today. These deal with how EU policies should be implemented, and with a range of general provisions for treaties.

But the most contentious part deciding on a European president, foreign minister, and the number of commissioners to form the policy-making body of the commission will not go to the Presidium.

Instead, the draft released two weeks ago will go directly to the convention, where the delegates can debate it on the floor.

Convention president Valery Giscard d'Estaing is anxiously trying to get agreement on the document so he can present a comprehensive constitution to the leaders in June.

Otherwise he knows there is a danger that they will tear apart his carefully-prepared document, cherry-picking what they want and throwing away the rest.

Each country will have a veto, but the last thing the EU wants is a repeat of the Nice debacle.

While the leaders will be presented with the constitution in June, they will have a number of months to debate it in their national parliaments before the Inter-Governmental Conference in late October.

Because they need to include the new countries in the debate, the final constitution will not be signed before their accession on May 1.

It may yet be signed in Dublin, which will hold the presidency until July, 2004. It will also have to go to a referendum in several EU countries, including Ireland.