Eurocommissarissen tegen Sarkozy's mini-verdrag (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is signalling growing interest in ideas to boost the EU constitution with new elements which are attractive to citizens, while openly attacking French proposals to reduce the charter to a "mini treaty."

Although the commission is still careful not to take too firm a position on the fate of the constitution - out of fear of offending EU capitals on the sensitive issue - a clearer picture of Brussels' thinking is slowly emerging.

This week saw two commissioners explicitly speaking out against French centre-right presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, who hit the headlines in September by proposing a "mini treaty," essentially limited to the constitutional Part I on smoother decision-making.

Communication commissioner Margot Wallstrom i on Wednesday (22 November) reiterated Brussels' position that "the political substance of the Constitutional Treaty should be preserved as much as possible," despite France and the Netherlands last year rejecting the document.

"Does this mean that we should be happy with a Mini-Treaty, only related to a few institutional changes? I am not convinced," the commissioner said.

"There are important policy areas where ...concrete innovations have been made and that should be preserved as well," she stated referring notably to Part II of the current text - the charter of fundamental rights of citizens.

Talking to EUobserver after the meeting, she termed the charter of fundamental rights as "fundamental," putting herself at odds also with Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot who recently proposed ditching Part II.

Ms Wallstrom's comments echo remarks by her external relations colleague Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who told Germany's Die Welt am Sonntag "I regard a Mini-Treaty, as proposed for example by French interior minister and presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, as wrong."

"The text should be enriched, not shortened," Ms Ferrero-waldner said signalling that Brussels is interested in adding fresh citizen-friendly clauses to the constitution.

The Austrian commissioner expressed support for a proposal by German chancellor Angela Merkel for a newly-designed "social protocol" to reassure citizens of the EU's social dimension.

Ms Wallstrom was less specific but said "I do not exclude that some other changes to the existing Treaties could be pursued, in particular if this is indispensable to overcome the negative position taken by a few Member States."

"This has to be done in co-operation with member states concerned. They are the ones to judge what is possible to do," she added with The Hague showing interest in stronger provisions on energy and safeguards against uncontrolled EU enlargement.

But the commissioner also warned against too much constitutional engineering.

"We should always keep in mind the timeframe and not be over ambitious," she stated, with the upcoming German presidency set to present a roadmap which it hopes will lead to a deal on a new treaty by 2009.