D'Estaing to head EU reform body

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing is to head a reform group in the run up to the European Union's expansion.

D'Estaing, will hold discussions with more than 100 representatives of governments, the European Parliament, national legislatures and the 12 nations due to join the EU as it expands eastward.

The body will sit for about a year looking at how the union can be adapted and modified before sending any proposals to a vote in 2004.

The so-called Convention and its president, the 75-year-old centre-right d'Estaing, were chosen on the final day of a two-day summit in Brussels on Saturday.

Former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and former Belgian Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene will act as his vice-president.

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But the choice of d'Estaing came in for criticism from some.

Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama was quoted by Reuters as saying d'Estaing was "a man of the European past...not a personality for the future of Europe."

Central to the debate, which starts March 1, is whether the EU should have strong federal powers or if it should be an economic club with a limited political agenda.

In the Laeken declaration, called "Future Of The European Union," the 15 leaders pledged to seek a common ground between those two positions and pursue reform of cumbersome decision-making rules they said must be revamped soon.

"The union stands at a crossroads, a defining moment in its existence," said the declaration, which takes its name from the royal palace where the summit is being held.

It did not go so far as to back a proposal by Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt which had called for more federalism, such as the direct election of the European Commission president, after it came into opposition from Britain and Sweden.

But it did empower the convention to explore whether the EU should eventually aim to have its own constitution.

The EU rules date back to the 1950s, when six members founded the union, but it is soon to grow to nearly 30 with the addition of a further 12 countries.

The leaders agreed to the declaration, saying all 12 nations currently negotiating to join the bloc should meet that target for membership, apart from Romania and Bulgaria.

They said negotiations with the other 10 should be wrapped up by the end of next year, meaning Slovenia, Hungary, Estonia, Malta, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania should be able to join on January 1, 2004, following parliamentary approval.

The leaders' declaration suggested several ways that the EU could be made more effective: * More majority voting to accelerate decision-making. Unanimity is still the rule in many areas.

* Endowing the EU with a constitution and a bill of rights. France and Germany back that, but Britain, Denmark and Sweden do not.

* More power for the EU executive Commission and the European Parliament, which now have only a limited say in many key areas.

The leaders failed to resolve the issue of which countries will host a series of new EU agencies, ranging from a food safety agency to a police academy and new bodies for maritime and air safety.

Scattered violence had broken out during a third day of protests against the summit.

Militants hurled Molotov cocktails at police and smashed windows of cars and banks during a march through the city centre, police and witnesses said.