Delegates agree final draft for EU constitution

Delegates drafting a first-ever constitution for the European Union today agreed on a final draft spelling out how the expanding bloc will be run in the decades ahead.

After 16 months of debate, they had to leave some key items – including national vetoes on foreign policy and taxation – unresolved to meet the deadline so a text can be presented at the EU leaders’ summit next week in Greece.

The convention chairman, former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing, told a packed chamber at the European Parliament that, nevertheless, history had been made.

“We have found a point of balance,” he said. “The time has come for us today to pronounce on this in a spirit of consensus. This text stands as the foundation of a treaty embodying the European Constitution.”

Many delegates declared the draft a watershed moment in shaping a new Europe, with new powers needed to make the 15-nation EU run more effectively once it takes in 10 new members next year.