The European constitution and its ratification crisis

Abstract

On 29th October 2004 in Rome twenty-eight Heads of State and Governments signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (Constitutional Treaty). <br /> The reforms proposed by the document, some rather tangible, some infinitesimal, were put to a test in the 25 current Member States of the Union. Choosing one of two ways to ratify the Constitutional Treaty, through parliamentary vote or a referendum, Member States originally had until November 2006 to do so in order for the document to enter into force. Until January 2006, thirteen Member States and the European Parliament ratified the Constitutional Treaty. Austria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain, whose populations represent almost 50% of EU’s total population, voted in favour of the document. France and the Netherlands, after holding referenda, failed to ratify the Treaty. The remaining ten Member States have currently either suspended or postponed the process of ratification. <br /> The desire for institutional reforms and the continuous process of deepening and widening of the Union defined the need for a single document, which would bring the Union closer to the people and would streamline the decision-making process. The process of conceptualizing and drafting the Constitutional Treaty started with the Laeken Declaration of 2001, which called for more democracy, transparency and efficiency of the European Union, simplification of the Union’s instruments and a better division and definition of competence in the EU. It also provided the guidelines for the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002-2003). The Convention consisted of representatives of Governments, national Parliaments, the European institutions and members of civil society organizations invited as observers. It was followed by the Intergovernmental Conference in 2004, which adopted the final version of the text of the Constitutional Treaty. <br /> After the ratification process came to a halt with the negative votes in France and the Netherlands, the European Union decided to step back and reassess its future development. The European Council, at its meeting on 16-17 June 2005, stated that “the date initially planned for a report on ratification of the Treaty, 1 November 2006, is [not] tenable, since those countries which have not yet ratified the Treaty will be unable to furnish a clear reply before mid-2007”. The state of ratification will be examined again by the Austrian Presidency in the first half of 2006, following a period of reflection in all Member States. As the need for reforms is still present, the debate on the Constitutional Treaty continues. <br /> The following collection of papers examines the ratification process in each individual Member State, taking into consideration the most recent developments at the time of writing (January 2006). Furthermore, these papers discuss the position of party groups represented in the European Parliament on the Constitutional Treaty. The concise overview of the political and public debates on the Treaty, as well as the data collected on public opinion, shed light on the current state of the ratification process. The publication offers an analytical look into the constitutional moods of the 25 EU Member States and attempts to outline options for the future of the Constitutional Treaty.