Belgium to push for elected EU president

Battle lines were drawn yesterday over the European Union's future after a key document proposed an EU constitution and pointed towards an elected European Commission President and a bigger role for the European Parliament.

A draft declaration due to be issued by EU heads of government at a summit in Laeken, Belgium, in two weeks, also raised the prospect of more majority voting in the Council of Ministers and the incorporation of Europe's Charter of Fundamental Rights into law.

The emergence of the document caused annoyance in some EU countries, including Britain, because it differed from earlier, more general drafts. One senior diplomat said the Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, appeared to have a "fully-fledged federalist structure in his mind". Although Tony Blair is anxious to avoid a public row with Belgium, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, British ministers have reservations about the plan and hope it will be rewritten before the summit.

Ministers want the report, which will launch a full-scale review of the EU's institutions, to "pose the questions rather than give the answers". One said: "A lot will have to happen before we agree to this." Other EU countries believe the document is over-ambitious and needs to be improved before the summit.

The opening section of the report marks a significant departure for the EU which has never before begun a declaration with an admission of its weaknesses. The paper argues that "after 50 years the weaknesses of the European structure are plain to see, speaks of "a real identity crisis" and concedes: "A gulf has opened up between the citizens and the European institutions."

After Denmark's rejection of the euro and the Irish referendum rejection of the Nice Treaty, this section is designed to convince the EU's critics it is trying to confront its weaknesses.

With up to 12 new countries due to join the EU, there will be an attempt to revamp existing institutions in 2004. The Laeken summit will appoint a Convention to draw up options for the heads of government at a conference in 2004. Ideas here are radical, including the definition of which powers lie at the national, and which at European, level.

The political battle ground before Laeken will focus on the text which lays down the remit of the Convention. The Belgian document asks a series of questions including "How to encourage the creation of real European political parties and a European political area?" including the suggestions: "By making provision for the direct election of the president of the European Commission or the European Council [which represents EU member states]?" and "By making provision for a majority system in the European Parliament in order to appoint the president of the European Commission?"