EU told not to mention the constitution

By Marcin Grajewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Shhhhhhh! Don't mention the constitution.

A work of mind-numbing complexity, the draft mandate to negotiate a treaty reforming the European Union's institutions formally dumps the "c-word" and offers concessions to almost all countries that had problems with the ambitious charter.

The 11-page document, circulated by the German EU presidency on Tuesday evening and obtained by Reuters, sets out a complex legal procedure to unravel the constitutional treaty rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

A senior German official called it "a precious piece of unique ugliness".

If EU leaders agree at a summit on Thursday and Friday, a new Reform Treaty would be negotiated to amend two existing treaties and introduce key reforms such as a long-term president and a (renamed) foreign minister, a new voting system and greater say for national parliaments on EU legislation.

"The Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the Union will not have a constitutional character," the document says.

"The terminology used throughout the Treaties will reflect this change: the term "Constitution" will not be used, the "Union Minister of Foreign Affairs" will be called [XXX} and the denominations "law" and "framework law" will be abandoned," it says, employing Xs in a nod to some countries' resistance to the very notion of a bloc foreign minister.

The purpose of the negotiating mandate is to preserve as much as possible of the substance of the constitution -- called "the innovations resulting from the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC)" -- without the name, symbols and structure.