Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I, too, welcome Deputy John Bruton to the House. We have had a series of contributions on the Convention of Europe through Mr. De Rossa MEP, the Minister of State, Deputy Roche, and Deputy Bruton. I recognise that all mentioned have worked as a team. I pay tribute to the work done by the Deputy both from reading the working reports that have come forward from the Convention and, secondly, as a member of the Presidium. There has been a huge commitment by Deputy Bruton to making this new Convention and its decisions work. This ensures that we will have a European Constitution that will stay the test of time, reflect the many views found in Europe and be easily read and accessible. There has been a criticism that such documents were far removed from the citizens of the European Union.

We have moved forward, which the Deputy mentioned. When the Union started, it was initially an economic union; then it moved to the monetary stage. We are now coming into the political stage which has become most important in relation to defence and security issues – more so, since the events of 11 September 2001 and the immediate threat of war.

I want to refer to the Deputy's thinking on the election of the President of the Commission. There are two schools of thought on this issue. The Minister of State's concept is that the electoral college should reflect both national parliaments and the European Parliament. This would be one way of overcoming the democratic deficit that seems to have existed heretofore. Deputy Bruton's thinking is that the citizens of European would go to the ballot box and they would have the power to change direction, should that be necessary. How far has that thinking moved? Are there many EU members going along with the concept? How complicated would it be to bring the idea into a working framework? It is all about democratic accountability and accessibility to representatives. The electoral college model may, in the end, work better if the direct election model does not. I would like to know the correlation between the two concepts and which idea is coming forward as the better approach at the end of the day. This is a major issue into which the Deputy has put much thought.