Former head of Council of Europe assesses first year of European Convention

The European Convention - the body set up to discuss the future of the European Union - has just celebrated its first birthday. The Convention was given the challenging task of finding ways to put the EU in touch with its citizens and rid the Union of its bureaucratic image. So how far has it gone in achieving those aims? A question my colleague David Vaughan put recently to Daniel Tarschys, professor of Political Science at Stockholm University and the former Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

"Well it's very impressive in many respects. I was a member of the first Convention, drafting the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, and I think the second Convention is extremely efficient. We still have to see what results will come from the Convention, but it has made considerable headway so far."

And yet at the same time it was originally intended as a way of forging policy in a very open way. Obviously, France and Germany have put political heavyweights - in the form of their foreign ministers - on the Convention. Isn't that in a way undermining the Convention and turning it into a lobbying platform?

"Many countries have placed heavyweights in the Convention, and of course the idea is that this will leave the Inter-Governmental Conference without a choice. Now, the Swedish parliament and government have taken a very firm position that there must be a stage after the Convention to discuss the results. We must also give the chance to European citizens to assess and evaluate the results. I think there is an important point there, because if this comes out as a conclusion that cannot be changed, then the exercise is not entirely satisfactory from a democratic point of view."

Another issue is the question of the candidate countries from Central and Eastern Europe. They don't have equal rights on the Convention, also for example they weren't invited to the extraordinary summit on Iraq a few weeks ago. On the one hand [EU Enlargement Commissioner] Guenter Verheugen was recently in Prague and he said that de facto the Czech Republic is already an EU member, but in practice that's not really true though is it?

"I don't think that needs to be a matter of concern. The candidate countries found their own way of expressing themselves on Iraq, didn't they? And I don't think the fact that they are not getting absolutely full treatment at this stage is anything that is important in the long run. At least they have the chance to express themselves. They can propose amendments, they can make suggestions. I think it's very satisfactory that they are part of the Convention, and that the issues concerning the future of Europe are discussed all over the Continent. So I don't think this should be a matter of concern."