Andrew Duff to meet Liberal Leaders in Thessaloniki

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 19th Jun 2003

Andrew Duff, Lib Dem MEP for the East of England, will today meet Liberal Prime Ministers and Leaders at a meeting of European Liberal Democrats before the European Summit of Thessaloniki, Greece, tomorrow.

Andrew Duff, who has been the European Liberal representative on the Convention on the Future of Europe, will brief Leaders on the outcome of the new constitution.

Speaking yesterday in a debate on the Convention in the European Parliament, Andrew Duff said "The Convention has produced a coherent package that no Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) would ever have produced. Indeed, the great risk is that the IGC will unpick the considerable results achieved in the Convention - anybody who believes that the IGC will improve on the text produced by the Convention is living in cloud-cuckoo land.

"The IGC should stick to the essentials that have been establish by the Convention and not re-open discussions. Jack Straw is very wrong if he believes that the UK will get its way at the IGC faced with 24 other vetoes. What could not be agreed between 15 countries at Nice will not be agreed by 25 in the future IGC.

In Thessaloniki, Andrew Duff will be speaking to the Liberal Prime Ministers of Belgium, Denmark and Finland as well as the Presidents of the European Commission, Romano Prodi and of the European Parliament, Pat Cox.