At the Nice European Council in December 2000, a declaration on the future of the European Union (EU), the Nice Declaration, was adopted. The aim of this Declaration was to pursue institutional reform beyond the results of the 2000 Intergovernmental Conference (IGC 2000). It set out three steps for this reform: the launch of a debate on the future of the European Union; a Convention on institutional reform, the implementation of which was agreed by the Laeken European Council in December 2001; and finally the convening of an IGC in 2004. According to the Laeken Declaration, the aim of this Convention is to examine four key questions on the future of the EU: the division of powers; the simplification of the treaties; the role of the national parliaments; and the status of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (2000). The inaugural meeting of the Convention was held on 28 February 2002, and, according to the Laeken Declaration, should have come to an end by March 2003. Three phases were envisaged: listening, deliberating and proposing. At the end of the last phase, a single constitutional text was drafted. This document served as the starting point for the IGC negotiations conducted by the EU Heads of State and Government, who are ultimately responsible for any decision on amendments to the treaties. The plan is for this constitutional draft to be presented at the latest in June 2003 at the Thessaloniki European Council. The work was completed in July 2003, resulting in the Rome Declaration of 18 July 2003, with Valéry Giscard d'Estaing as Chairman. The Rome Constitution was signed on 29 October 2004. The Convention is an innovation in as far as previous IGCs have never been preceded by a phase of debate open to all stakeholders. In addition to the members of the Convention (representatives of Heads of State and Government of Member States and candidate States, national parliaments and the European Parliament, and the European Commission), civil society organizations were also able contribute to the debate via an interactive forum, the Forum on the Future of the Union. See: Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union; European Constitution; Intergovernmental Conference (ICG); Laeken Declaration