EU draft constitution irks Prodi, Pope

A draft constitution for the European Union came under fire from European Commission President Romano Prodi yesterday and also looked set to irk Pope John Paul II by omitting mention of God or Christianity.

But Britain, the most eurosceptical of the 15 member states, praised the proposed text emerging from the Convention on the Future of Europe, saying it put nation states firmly in the driving seat of an EU soon to expand to 25 members.

Mr Prodi told reporters in Athens during an EU-Canada summit the text published by the Convention's steering presidium was disappointing and unambitious. He urged the 105-member Convention to improve it when they debate it later this week.

"Despite all the hard work we have put into this, the text that is now before us simply lacks vision and ambition," the head of the Brussels-based EU executive said.

Mr Prodi, a former Italian prime minister, wants more powers for the Commission and for the European Parliament - the EU's two supranational institutions. He has pressed for a big extension of qualified majority voting to help speed up decision-making in a bloc which may eventually have nearly 30 members.

In a setback for the Vatican and religious groups, the draft constitutional preamble released yesterday contained no reference to God or Christianity, but spoke only of "the cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe".

The battle over whether to refer to religion has pitted Christian Democrats and Europe's churches against secularists, especially on the political left, who were at most willing to acknowledge a spiritual tradition of shared values.

The pope had pushed for a specific reference to Christianity in the preamble, written by the Convention's head, ex-French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, himself a Catholic.

The text refers to the "civilisations of Greece and Rome" and the 18th century European Enlightenment.

"They have anchored in the life of society the perception of the central role of the human being, of his inviolable and inalienable rights and also respect for the law," it said.

Mr Giscard is racing to complete the draft constitution in time for an EU summit in Greece on June 20-21.

Unlike Mr Prodi, he wants member states to retain the decisive say in the EU. He recently challenged Mr Prodi to a public debate on whether the European Council, grouping national leaders, needs a long-term president. Mr Prodi rejected the proposed venue.

Along with smaller countries, the Commission chief opposes a long-term head of the Council, saying it would allow the big countries to dominate the EU and create a rival bureaucracy to the Commission, guardian of the supranational European interest.

Giscard, strongly backed by Britain, France and Spain, says such a figure would give the EU greater focus and global clout.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, writing in yesterday's Times newspaper, made clear London's satisfaction with the way the Convention is heading, despite charges by eurosceptical British media of a drift towards a European "superstate".

"(The constitution) will create a stable rule book setting out clearly the primacy of nation states," Straw wrote. "There has never been a better chance for Britain to shape Europe."

Nevertheless, the draft unveiled this week does envisage a big increase in the number of areas where future EU decisions would be made by qualified majority voting, among them energy, immigration and asylum policy and regional aid.

Some decisions in the EU require unanimity, others can be taken by qualified majority voting in which countries' votes are weighted and well over 50 per cent of votes are needed for agreement.

EU leaders will have the final say on the constitution at a conference due to start in Italy in October.