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The European Convention, sometimes known as the Convention on the Future of Europe, was a body established by the European Council in December 2001 as a result of the Laeken Declaration. Its purpose was to produce a draft constitution for the European Union for the Council to finalise and adopt. The Convention finished its work in July 2003. For the history of the European Constitution after this point, see Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe.

1 Origins at Nice

The Convention has its origins in the Nice European Council held in December 2000. This summit sought agreement on a process of revising the existing treaties on which the European Union was founded, as a prelude to enlargement. A consensus emerged about the need to begin a "broader and deeper debate" on the future of the EU, and consequently the Council adopted a declaration on the future of the union annexed to the Treaty of Nice. The process was intended to commence with a phase of open debate before the European Council met in Laeken the following year, when a better idea of what was required would have emerged.

The declaration adopted at Nice set out four main themes to be addressed:

How to achieve a more precise delimitation of powers between the European Union and its member states, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.
The status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights proclaimed at Nice.
How to simplify the existing treaties in order to clarify their meaning.
The role of national parliamentAlternative meanings: Parliamentary system, Parliament (band), Parliament (cigarette). A parliament is a legislative body, especially in those countries whose system of government is based on the Westminster system derived from that of the United Kingdom.s in the European Union.

2 The Laeken Declaration

In December 2001, when the European Council met in Laeken, a fresh declaration was adopted committing the EU to greater democracyA democracy is a form of government under which the power to alter the laws and structures of government lies with the voting citizenry (referred to as "the people", because in modern times it usually consists of all people over 18 years of age), and all, transparencySee: transparency (optics) alpha compositing GIF#Transparency transparency (overhead projector) market transparency transparency (telecommunication) transparency (computing) Transparency International is an organization working for transparency i. account and efficiencyEfficiency is a term used with widely variant meanings in different disciplines. See Algorithmic efficiency for its use in Computer Science. Economic efficiency for its use in Economics. Efficiency (statistics) for its use in statistics. Electrical effici, and setting out the process by which a constitution could be arrived at. This was to be achieved by a convention, which was intended to comprise the main 'stakeholders', in order to examine questions about the future direction of the EU. It was to produce a draft constitution to be handed over to the Intergovernmental ConferenceAn Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) is the formal procedure for negotiating amendments to the founding treaties of the European Union. Under the treaties, an IGC is called into being by the European Council, and is composed of representatives of the mem, scheduled for 20042004 is a leap year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 2004 calendar), and has also been designated the: International Year of Rice International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery and its Abolition Elections are to be held in 73 co, which would finalise a new treaty.

3 Work of the Convention

The European Convention was established with 105 members, chaired by former FrenchThe French Republic or France ( French: Republique francaise or France is a country whose metropolitan territory is located in western Europe, and which is further made up of a collection of overseas islands and territories located in other continents. president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Most of its members were drawn from the national parliaments of member states and candidate countries, as well as representatives of heads of state and government. The Convention met for the first time in February 2002, and met thereafter in plenary session once or twice per month.

4 See also

5 External link

European Convention (official website - no longer updated)

European Union

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Topics: European Convention, Origins At Nice, The Laeken Declaration...

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