30.4.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 109/52

1.

DEPLORES the failure of the IGC at the European Council of 12 and 13 December 2003 and SUPPORTS the efforts of the Irish presidency to relaunch the intergovernmental negotiations in order to give the citizens of Europe a constitution as quickly as possible, preferably before the European elections;

2.

CALLS for the talks to be held in public, with a view to improving transparency and accountability;

3.

STRESSES the historic progress made by the European Convention, underpinned by a powerful democratic mandate, from the citizens of Europe;

4.

REGARDS the draft submitted by the European Convention to the heads of state or government, which it endorses, as the foundation of the future Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and thus CONSIDERS it to be the mainstay of the ultimate IGC agreement;

5.

CALLS ON Member State governments to shoulder their responsibilities and ASKS them to put the Community interest before national interests, in order to safeguard the future of European integration, not least cohesion policy;

6.

STRESSES in that connection that the inclusion of territorial cohesion as a Union objective is one of the fundamental achievements of the Convention's draft Constitution;

7.

URGES the IGC to confirm the constitutional recognition of the role of local and regional authorities in the European venture and the new role given to the CoR on the monitoring of the principle of subsidiarity, as affirmed by the Convention;

8.

REITERATES its recommendations to straighten out certain inconsistencies between the various sections of the Treaty without, however, undermining the institutional balance in order, on the one hand, to clarify the CoR's institutional status, firmly establish its areas of mandatory consultation within the constitutional set-up and strengthen its consultative role, and, on the other, to consolidate economic, social and territorial cohesion, among other things by establishing an explicit legal basis for interregional and cross-border cooperation;

9.

CALLS ON Member State governments, to complete the Union reform process launched at the Laeken European Council;

10.

INSTRUCTS its president to forward this resolution to the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the European Commission and members of the Convention.