Even following the signing of the Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice, the legal foundations of the European Community and the European Union were not completely consistent with the ideal of of a citizen-oriented and transparent Union, always capable of action even with an increased number of Member States. Capable of improvement, for example, were both the delineation of competence between the Member States and the Union, as well as the procedures for adopting legal instruments.
For this reason, the Laeken Declaration of 15 December 2001 established the foundation for a Convention; its task was to work up a concluding document for the future of the European Union which simplified and newly ordered the existing contractual foundations. The Convention met from March 2002 until July 2003 under the chairmanship of former French President Giscard d’Estaing. The draft treaty for a Constitution for Europe submitted by the Convention was approved on 18 June 2004 by the heads of state and government with some amendments, and was signed in Rome on 29 October 2004.
The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which is to replace and summarise the contents of the previous Treaty establishing the European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community, consists of four parts:
-
Part I states the goals and basic values of
the Union, and contains the fundamental institutional
provisions. Important changes include the introduction of the
office of a European Foreign Minister, as well as the new
provision governing the so-called qualified majority in the
Council, determinative for many decisions, which is attained
when 55 % of the states that simultaneously represent 65 % of
the EU population agree to a proposal. Furthermore, it
introduces a uniform instrument for action for all policy
areas.
-
Part II takes over, with some amendments, the
Charter of Fundamental Rights, which was worked up under the
leadership of former German Federal President Roman Herzog and
ceremoniously proclaimed on 7 December 2000 by the Parliament,
the Council and the Commission. It contains the basic rights to
liberty and equality, citizens’ rights, judicial
fundamental rights, and the economic and social rights and
principles which arise from the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and from
the common constitutional traditions of the Member States, as
well as other instruments, treaties and Conventions (such as
the Social Charter of the EU and the Council of Europe). With
this type of integration, the Charter attains a legally binding
character.
-
Part III contains provisions of specific
policy areas and the working methods of the Union. The
Constitutional Treaty thereby takes over the substantive
provisions of the Treaty establishing the European Community
(EC) with some modifications, but without tying them to
significant changes as to content. Further, it contains rules
on the policy areas that were not previously made communal and
constituted the fields of activity of the European Union. This
serves to overcome the previous “pillar structure”
of the Union. The Constitutional Treaty also provides for
substantive changes in the Union’s two previous fields of
activity. For example, the Constitution provides that the
common foreign and security policy be expanded to include the
phased-in determination of a common defence policy and
representation toward the outside by the European Foreign
Minister with the support of a European Foreign Service.
Important changes in the field of police and judicial
cooperation in criminal matters brought about by the
Constitution include supplementing and placing in more concrete
the competence provisions in criminal law and criminal
procedure law, as well as the introduction of a legal basis for
the establishment of a European Public Prosecution Office.
- Part IV contains general and concluding provisions.
The Constitution is the subject of an international-law treaty which must be ratified by all Member States. National constitutions requires the approval of the parliament, and in some cases a national referendum. After the citizens in France and the Netherlands voted against the Treaty in referenda, the European Council, at its meering on 16 and 17 June 2005, came to the assessment that “we do not feel that the date initially planned for a report on ratification of the Treaty, 1 November 2006, is still tenable, since those countries which have not yet ratified the Treaty will be unable to furnish a clear reply before mid-2007.” A period of reflectionis currently underway in all countries, and this period is to be used for dialogue and communication.
