May 31, 2003	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 28, 1424

VATICAN CITY, May 30: The Vatican on Friday renewed its criticism of a draft European Union constitution, regretting that the document contained no reference to Christianity.

“The Vatican was surprised to note the absence of a reference to Christianity” in the preamble to the document, spokesman Joaquin Navarro Valls said.

“We therefore share the view of the eminent members of the Convention who have already proposed to include this element in the next version of the preamble,” he said.

The Catholic Church has been campaigning for the document, being hammered out by a Convention chaired by former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, to contain an explicit reference to Christianity.

This, however, poses problems for a number of EU countries which have constitutions respecting the complete separation of church and state.

The new statement came as the 105 members of the Convention on the future of Europe were holding a plenary session in Brussels.

RADICAL PROPOSALS: Valery Giscard d’Estaing faced renewed criticism on Friday over radical proposals to reform how the soon-to-expand bloc is run.

And in one fresh major challenge, a group of countries including Britain and Spain called for him to ditch plans to change voting rights in the Union, which is preparing to expand from 15 to 25 members next year.

But the former French president, who has been attacked from all sides over his proposals and is battling to finalize an accord in only three weeks’ time, rebuffed the pressure.

“The criticisms expressed here and there are natural, we mustn’t make a drama out of it,” he said, as the Convention on the Future of Europe held its latest talks in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Giscard d’Estaing this week published an updated version of his draft constitution for the future European Union (EU), which is due to expand in May next year.

The draft, released as the convention battles to finalize the blueprint before an EU summit on June 20, was immediately attacked by eurosceptics, who fear domination by an EU superstate.

British minister Peter Hain, London’s main representative on the convention, attacked plans to extend “enhanced cooperation” in EU foreign policy-making.

“Once you start to change the fundamental underpinning of any structure you risk the whole edifice crumbling,” said Hain.

Prodi also resumed his attack, saying: “Unfortunately the draft before us is less ambitious I had hoped for and even less than President Giscard d’Estaing himself had in mind in the beginning.”

SPANNER IN THE WORKS: it also emerged that Hain was among the signatories of a letter to Giscard by nine countries which could put a major spanner in the works of a hoped-for deal.

The letter called for voting rights to remain as in the Nice Treaty, an accord hammered out at the last minute in the French city in Dec 2000, and which has been widely criticized.

“The Nice institutional accord is not perfect, we know that, but it represents the point of balance between the different interests and, despite the easy criticism of some, we believe it can serve the Union,” it said.—AFP