by Ryan Dilley BBC News Online

At a modest 4,400 words, the United States Constitution is a remarkably readable document - despite the odd typographical error, such as the misspelling of "Pensylvania".

Drafted in 1787, the world's oldest (and reputedly shortest) written constitution is beloved by American citizens.

"P-e-n...errrr...s-y-l-v-a-n-i-a"

So simple is it, that even schoolchildren can quote from its opening lines: "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."

It would be a strange European child indeed who could quote from the 63,000-word Treaty of Rome - particularly the opening passage in which the "the High Contracting Parties" pledge to implement "the common policies or activities referred to in Articles 3 and 3a".

As one might expect from an organisation involved in drafting complex legislation across 15 member states, the European Union is hardly sparing with its use of jargon and legalese impenetrable to any but the brightest legal minds.

Plain and simple

Last year, an EU report - "presented orally in plenary sitting" - admitted as much, and called on "institutions to use simple and clear language in all official documents, wherever possible".

The UK foreign secretary Jack Straw has said that the workings of the EU are "obscure" and backed the creation of a written constitution to help "individual citizens feel more attached to the EU than they may do at the moment".

"For the purposes set out in Article 2, the activities of the Community shall include..."

He hopes such a document will set out for voters their rights and responsibilities and explain the relationship between the EU and the governments of its member states.

"The point about having a constitution is that it's a clearly-understood word describing the basic rules for the operation of an institution, whether it's a golf club, a political party or in this case a European Union," Mr Straw says.

Michael Ancram, Mr Straw's opposite number in the Conservative Party, said he clearly understood what "constitution" meant - a sly step closer to "full political union".

'You say subsidiarity, I say...'

If even the word "constitution" is argued over in the UK, can a body as complicated as the EU create a document capable of pleasing politicians and lawyers, while still engaging with ordinary people?

The Plain English Campaign thinks the task will be "a difficult job, but one well worth trying".

"We would very much welcome a constitution, if it was first tested on ordinary members of the public all around the EU," says spokesman John Lister.

In words of no more than five syllables

While the campaign has a whole department devoted to the linguistic shortcomings of the European Union, Mr Lister says the EU's performance is "no better or worse than other organisations".

Indeed, the campaign has sympathy for those having to write a single document intended for people living by the warm Adriatic and the chilly Baltic.

Mr Lister says that anything written by a committee is prone to lapsing into gobbledegook, even before the EU's many translators have begun working on it.

"This makes the EU seem so much more distant to ordinary people. Because they can't understand what is written down people feel they can't have an effect or a say in what is going on."

Asked by BBC News Online to comment on the difficulties of writing for the layperson - and the opportunities a constitution might offer to engage with the EU citizenry - the European Commission Representation in the UK replied with an utterly unambiguous "no".