Three months expected for assessment of results of European Convention

The member states of the European Union are likely to be given three months to assess the results of the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe. The Finnish Government would have liked a full six months to review the results of the convention before the Inter-Governmental Conference, which makes a final decision on the issue. The Convention is scheduled to complete its work by the end of June. Finland says that it needs six months after that before Parliament can take a stand on the proposed reforms. The office of the Finnish Council of State issued an unofficial calculation on Thursday, predicting that the IGC would begin already in late September - immediately after the Swedish referendum on whether or not to join the common European currency, the euro, and after referendums on EU membership are held in the applicant countries. The timetable and the possible extension to be granted to the work of the convention could come up at an extraordinary meeting of the EU heads of state and government to be held in Athens on April 16. It is at this meeting that the EU applicant countries are to sign their membership agreements. The Finnish Parliament and its committees are more closely linked with EU decision-making than those of the other member states, which is why the process in Finland would require more time than elsewhere. The Chairman of the Convention, former French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, feels that the final result of the Convention should not be changed in talks between the governments of the member states, or in the Inter-Governmental Conference.