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		Commission president ducks questions on EU constitution Thursday, 6th July 2006 The President of the EU Commission, José Manuel Barroso, has refused to respond to questions from MEPs about the potentially illegal implementation of large parts of the failed EU Constitution. Although the draft Constitution was rejected in referenda in 2005 in France and Holland, and is therefore dead in its own terms, large parts of it are going ahead. According to Austrian government minister Hans Winkler, speaking at the end of his country's presidency of the EU in June, some 36 projects dependant on the failed constitution are now under way. These include a Human Rights Agency, a Space Agency, a diplomatic service, and a Corps of Border Guards. In addition, the ’Charter of Fundamental Rights ', which was to have been approved as part of the failed Constitution, is being incorporated into legal decisions already. In the absence of the Constitution these new initiatives and agencies, and the very substantial expenditure associated with them, have no legal basis and are therefore ultra vires and illegal. Two MEPs, Roger Helmer (Conservative, East Midlands) and Ashley Mote (Independent, South East) have written to the Commission President to raise these important issues. They demanded to know by what right the EU is proceeding. Initially they received a vague and unsatisfactory reply. When pressed, Barroso would not justify his position. He replied "This correspondence is now closed". Commenting on the Commission President's position, Mr Helmer said; "The EU claims to be a Union of Values based on democracy and the rule of law. But its disregard of the NO votes in last year's referenda demonstrates its contempt for democracy and the verdict of the people. "Its determination to implement large parts of the failed Constitution in the absence of any legal basis, and no prospect of one in the foreseeable future, makes a mockery of its claimed respect for the rule of law".