The European Parliament was very impressed and pleased with the method of preparation of the constitutional treaty on the part of the Convention on the Future of Europe. We believe this is the way to open up debate to a wider audience. Even if people chose not to follow the debate, they cannot claim to have been excluded. The convention sat for 17 months and had, between full and substitute members, 207 members representing Governments and Parliaments from 28 states, including the Houses of the Oireachtas, and also the European Commission and European Parliament. The convention heard more than 2,000 spoken contributions on the public record, dealt with more than 6,000 amendments and considered more than 240 proposals. It published 23,500 documents, including amendments, proposals, analyses, input and revision, on the Internet as they arrived before it. This represents open engagement and not a Europe behind closed doors.