Britain draws up plans for powerful EU presidency

Plans for a powerful new president of Europe, chosen from the ranks of current or past premiers, are to be fleshed out in a draft constitution for the EU, commissioned by the Foreign Office.

The document, being drawn up by an academic whose work is funded by the Government, will be presented later this month to an inquiry into the future of Europe chaired by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president.

The initiative aims to set the agenda for Mr Giscard's convention and to boost British hopes of creating a simplified structure for the European Union while entrenching the powers of national governments and parliaments. The new president would be selected by EU leaders and would chair ministerial meetings, assuming a wide role on the international stage. Speculation is already rife that potential contenders could include the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, or Tony Blair, if Britain joined the euro.

However, the details remain sensitive because the idea of the new presidency is opposed by small member states, which suspect they will lose out.

In Whitehall the creation is seen as a way of heading off calls for the president of the European Commission to be elected, something that would strengthen the legitimacy and power of the EU's Brussels bureaucracy.

The EU has agreed to review its structures because the current decision-making process is creaking, even before up to 10 new countries are admitted, probably in 2004. Whitehall has been energetic in its efforts to influence the outcome of the convention, made up of 105 politicians from the EU countries and those that want to join.

In Brussels today Gisella Stuart, a former British minister who is chairing a working group in Mr Giscard's convention, will suggest that national parliaments should be able to scrutinise proposals for new EU laws, providing an "early warning" if they believed them to be encroaching too much on national powers. Ms Stuart also wants to see European Commissioners appear before MPs and new links forged between national and European parliamentarians.

Although important divisions remain, momentum is gathering within the convention and Mr Giscard will propose its first constitutional text at the end of the month.

After the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, reversed Britain's traditional opposition to the idea of a European constitution, ministers promised to submit their own draft text to the convention. The idea of a formal government text was dropped and, instead, the Government commissioned a former Brussels legal expert and Cambridge academic, Alan Dashwood, to come up with a text under a remit from the Foreign Office. Although officials insist this "Cambridge text" is independent, it reflects the Government's objectives.

Although the convention has months more work to do, the outline of its likely conclusions are becoming clearer. These include sharper definitions of the EU's remit, a strengthening of leadership in the European Council and – less welcome to Britain – the incorporation of the charter of fundamental rights into EU law.

The Government is now flexible on giving the charter legal status but is insisting on guarantees that it would not take precedence over certain domestic laws. It is also dropping its insistence that the group of eurozone finance ministers, from which the UK is excluded, should not take decisions. Ministers now accept that after EU enlargement this position would not be tenable if the eurozone countries wanted decision-making powers.

Yesterday Peter Hain, the Minister for Europe, endorsed proposals for the future of Europe put forward by the Party of European Socialists, to which Labour is allied, saying they implied support for the idea of a new EU president.

The document calls for changes to the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, adding that "a longer term for the new presidency, aimed at safeguarding the continuity of council policies, should be part of a wider arrangement."