Airstrip One

Delaying Tactics - 26th February 2003, 22.25

Giscard D'Estaing has found that the flood of amendments to the draft sixteen articles of the new constitution may not be considered without extending the life of the Convention beyond the agreed deadline of June. All of the accession countries are pushing for a period of reflection in order to make their voices heard in the negotiations. And Peter Heathcote-Amory has tabled a small but significant change...

Some of the proposed changes are fundamental in nature: including a suggestion from a British "euroskeptic" that the word "constitution" be replaced by "treaty." "A constitution establishes a state. A Treaty is an agreement between states," said David Heathcoat-Amory, a British Tory behind that proposal.