1. On the issue of which values should be included in Article 2 of the Constitutional Treaty, the group welcomes the reference to human dignity in the preliminary draft Constitutional Treaty, and recommends also the inclusion of the values of social justice, solidarity and equality, in particular equality between men and women.

2. On the social objectives of the Union, the Group recommends that Article 3 of the Constitutional Treaty include the promotion of: full employment, social justice, social peace, sustainable development, economic, social and territorial cohesion, social market economy, quality of work, lifelong learning, social inclusion, a high degree of social protection, equality between men and women, children's rights, a high level of public health and efficient and high quality social services and services of general interest.

3. On the competences of the Union in the social field, the Group considers in general that the existing competences are adequate. However the Group suggests that these could be further clarified, and that action at a European level should focus on issues related to the functioning of the single market and/or areas with a considerable cross- border impact. The Group considers that specific extensions to existing competences in the area of public health should be envisaged as well as a possible re- drafting of Article 16 TEC in order to further enable EU legislation in the field of services of general interest.

4. The Group broadly supports the inclusion of the open method of coordination in the Treaty, in such a manner as to clarify the procedures and respective roles of those involved. This provision should indicate clearly that the open method of coordination cannot be used to undermine existing Union or Member State competence.

5. The Group agrees on the need to streamline the various economic and social coordination processes, with the Spring European Council having responsibility for ensuring coherence. It is recommended that the procedures needed to ensure this be formalised in the Treaty.

6. Over qualified majority voting (QMV), the consensus reached by the Group was limited to the position that, as a minimum, the compromise achieved in Nice with respect to authorizing the Council to unanimously seek a changeover into codecision and QMV for Article 137(d), (f) and (g) should be upheld in the Constitution. This would leave subparagraph 137(1)(c) still subject to unanimity. Beyond that, a strongly expressed minority opinion remained opposed to any automatic extension of QMV to social security and employment relations while for most other members of the Group it was possible, as of now, to envisage progress towards a majority decision system. A "superqualified majority vote" was mentioned by some as a possible compromise. The Group agreed that a better clarification of the scope of European action could be envisaged in order to facilitate general use of qualified majority voting. In this context, the scope and language of Article 137 could be updated and modernised. Most members of the Group pleaded for codecision with qualified majority voting to be applied to Articles 13 and 42 TEC

7. The Group recommends that the role of the social partners be recognised explicitly in the Constitutional Treaty, that adequate consultation provisions should be included and that the existing arrangements for negotiation of social agreements should be enhanced. Civil society organisations should also be given an role, especially in combating social exclusion, without prejudice to the existing special position of social partners in the social dialogue process.