No Guarantee of Convention Agreement

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 23rd May 2003

There is no guarantee that the Convention will accept the Praesidium's draft Constitution, says Andrew Duff MEP.

In a statement today, Duff said:

"The Praesidium is not the IGC-in-waiting. Its job is to reflect the weight of argument in the Convention. If it fails to do this, and has instead followed its own agenda, the reaction in the Convention next Friday will be explosive.

"Neither my consent to the draft Constitution nor that of my Liberal colleagues can be presumed. "We will be convinced only by a genuine process of constitutionalisation that re-founds the Union, develops parliamentary democracy and enhances the capacity of Europe to act on the world stage."