Sixteen months of hard toil on a constitutional text by some of Europe's most well-known politicians have not succeeded in raising awareness of the constitutional convention among the majority of Europe's citizens.

A poll conducted on behalf of the European Commission directly after the draft Constitution was ceremoniously handed over to EU leaders at the Thessaloniki Summit (June 20 to 21), found that 55 percent of the 25,000 surveyed had never heard of the convention.

The worst informed in the enlarged 25-member European Union were the British, with only 25 percent having heard of the convention. However, they are not alone. Snapping at their heels were the Hungarians and Latvians also coming in with less than 30 percent.

At the other end of the scale, the Greeks beat everybody else hands down. There 81 percent of those asked had heard of the convention—most likely due to the fact that their country held the EU presidency during the first half of this year, resulting in broad coverage by domestic media.

About 40 percent of those surveyed said they "do not intend" to read the text, which proposes, among other things, a European foreign minister, a permanent president of the European Council and substantially increasing the powers of the European Parliament.

Finns score highest here. Some 53 percent do not want to read the treaty blueprint—despite being quite well-informed about the convention itself. But they are also keeping good company. Britons, Germans, the Dutch and the Danes also score highly in their plans to not read the draft constitution.

The European Commission intends to conduct a second survey at the beginning of October for the start of the Intergovernmental Conference to tie up any loose ends in the treaty.

—Source: EUobserver.com.