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What will become of the European Constitution?

Confusion reigns since the rejection of the Draft Treaty of the European Constitution by France and the Netherlands in 2005.
The author takes a look at the Constitution text and its history.

The European Union sees itself as a union in a two-fold sense – as a union of states and one made up of the EU citizens. The draft of a Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was adopted by the Intergovernmental Conference on 18 June 2004 and signed in Rome on 29 October by all heads of state and government of the then 25 member states of the EU.

Does the European Union have a bad constitution?
Photo: Photocase.com

On 12 January 2005 the European Parliament, which does not represent individual countries but their citizens, formally adopted the Treaty with 500 assenting votes, 137 dissenting votes and 40 abstentions; the European Parliament wholeheartedly backed its ratification by each member state. According to Article IV-447, the Treaty was originally meant to take effect on 1 November 2006, provided that all instruments of ratification had been deposited by all the signatory states. If some ratification instruments were to arrive later, it would enter into force "on the first day of the second month following the deposit of the instrument of ratification by the last signatory state to take this step”.

One of the declared objectives of the Constitution is that "Europe, reunited […] intends to continue along the path of civilisation, progress and prosperity, for the good of all its inhabitants, including the weakest and most deprived; […] and [that it wishes] to strive for peace, justice and solidarity throughout the world” (Preamble). What is particularly important is the fact that the Constitution supplements the principle of representative democracy with the principle of participatory democracy (Article I-47) which primarily entails civic contributions by EU citizens or civil society through the exchange of information.

According to the proposed Constitution, the EU would recognise the identity and the specific contribution of and should maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue with the churches and philosophical and non-confessional organisations (Art. I-52).[1]

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