The Convention on the Future of Europe has produced the first draft of a constitution that could herald the most radical overhaul of the European Union since its foundation.
The outline treaty announced yesterday by the convention's president, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, envisages replacing all previous EU treaties with a simpler document.
It suggests that the EU could change its name, set out fundamental rights and give every EU citizen dual citizenship of the Union and their own country. The constitution would define the relationship between EU institutions and the member-states and, for the first time, allow countries to leave the EU.
It raises the possibility of a Congress of the Peoples of Europe, in which representatives of national parliaments would oversee the EU's strategic direction but would not pass laws.
Mr Giscard urged the 105 members of the convention to take an imaginative approach to drafting the new treaty.
"We need a constitutional treaty to mark the beginning of a renewed Europe as we accept new member-states into our midst, a Europe in which all citizens should recognise themselves as European," he said.
The convention includes representatives from national governments, national parliaments, the Commission, the European Parliament and 13 candidate countries. It will produce a draft constitutional treaty next summer, but the treaty must be approved by EU leaders before it can become law.
Yesterday's document refers to the possibility of appointing a fixed president for the European Council of heads of state and government. This proposal is backed by Britain, France and Spain, but opposed by many smaller states, including Ireland.
The former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, who is a member of the convention's praesidium, stressed that yesterday's document was an outline and that its proposals have yet to be discussed by the convention.
The Government's representative at the convention, Mr Dick Roche, expressed relief that Mr Giscard had not produced what he called a federalist charter.
The Green Party leader, Mr John Gormley, expressed concern at some of the language used in the document, including the suggestion that the EU could change its name to the United States of Europe. The other names suggested are European Community, European Union and United Europe.
In a contribution to the convention yesterday, Mr Roche expressed support for a congress representing national parliamentarians and suggested that such a body could play a role in choosing the Commission President. But the German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said that the last thing the EU needed was to create yet another institution.
The Dublin MEP, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, was among a number of others at the convention to express reservations about the idea of a congress. He suggested that Mr Giscard was primarily interested in a congress as a vehicle for his own self-aggrandisement.
The draft treaty opens with a definition of the EU as "a Union of European States which, while retaining their national identities, closely co-ordinate their policies at the European level and administer certain common competences on a federal basis".
It sets out the EU's values as "human dignity, fundamental rights, democracy, the rule of law, tolerance, respect for obligations and for international law".
Among the objectives the treaty outlines are the development of a common foreign and security policy and a common defence policy "to defend and promote the Union's values in the wider world".
The Government is eager to preserve the present balance between EU institutions and to ensure that the Commission remains strong. But Mr Bruton warned that the Government should avoid being perceived as defensive or reactive at the convention.
