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Europe's Constitution Nears Completion

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By William Horsley

BBC News
June 12, 2003

There is excitement in Brussels. The Convention on the Future of Europe, which has spent 16 months labouring to work up a draft constitution for the EU is poised to complete its main work this week. Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president who is chairing the consultative Convention, may have his wish to go down in history as the "father of the European constitution". The spur for all this was the decision to enlarge the EU to 25 states, taking in most of the ex-communist states of eastern Europe.

Euro-idealists wanted the constitution to mark the birth of the EU as a global superpower - a "United States of Europe" that could rival the USA. But it is now clear the EU will remain a hybrid - a union of nation-states.

Proposals

The main change is that stronger supranational powers will be wielded by the EU's own institutions. A vocal minority of Convention members - made up of politicians from in all 28 European countries - protest that the EU will become an undemocratic "superstate". But as the Convention opened its final plenary session on Wednesday it was suddenly clear: the Convention is going to succeed in its first aim - to define, for at least the next generation, a division of powers between national governments and the EU's growing machinery as a "European government". But it has so far failed in its other big goal - to make the EU more open and understandable to its people.

The main proposals in the draft constitutional treaty are -

  • The EU will have a President. He or she will be chosen by the heads of national governments and be the main public face of the EU. But key powers, like decisions over war and peace, will stay with the same players - including President Chirac of France, Britain's Tony Blair and Germany's Chancellor Schroeder.

  • The President of the European Commission, the EU's administrative arm, will have more authority, and pick members of his team of commissioners from candidates in all EU countries. Each state will no longer be guaranteed the right to a seat on the Commission.

  • The EU will have a foreign minister, whose job will be to realise the EU's ambitions to speak with one voice on foreign affairs, security and defence. But the sharp splits within Europe over the Iraq war suggest the task will be extremely hard.

  • Common EU policies and standards will be extended into many new areas, like external border controls, asylum policy and public health. National veto rights will be reduced. Some states want the EU in time to win authority over the most sensitive areas, like taxation and defence. Others are determined to block that idea.

  • The European Parliament will have much greater law-making powers, together with the council of national governments - the so-called "Council of Ministers".

  • National parliaments will have a lesser role as more law-making responsibilities shift to the EU level. But they will be able to halt any unauthorised moves by EU bodies to take over more nation-state "competences".

    So what happens next? The EU heads of government will examine the draft constitution at a summit in Thessaloniki on June 20th.

    Then the really tough talking starts. In October EU foreign ministers will start an Intergovernmental Conference. If any country rejects any part of the constitutional treaty it will have to be scrapped. Probably there will be a few heated battles and a host of minor changes. Some states have already made clear their "red lines" - the parts they cannot accept. Britain says it will veto the current draft which accords the EU a defence role that could rival that of Nato. The treaty should be signed by next spring. If all goes well the treaty will come into force in early 2006. It must be ratified first. It will be a bumpy ride. It could be rejected in referendums in one of more member-states. If so, the EU will face another crisis of identity. Helpfully, in case of need the draft constitution contains a possible solution -- an "exit clause" to allow any member-state to withdraw from the Union if it so decides.

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    FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.