Towards a Kind of European Constitution? From the Saint-Malo Franco-British Meeting to the Lisbon Treaty (1998-2007)

Damien T.

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Towards a Kind of European Constitution? From the Saint-Malo Franco-British Meeting to the Lisbon Treaty (1998-2007)

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Themes

European Constitution, Saint-Malo, Franco-British meeting, Lisbon Treaty, 1998, 2007, Nice Text of 2000, GB Great Britain, Europe, EU European Union, FTA Free Trade Agreement, free trade area, Nice Treaty, 2001, European Council, European Declaration of Human Rights of 1999, European Parliament, 19 June 2004, foreign policy, defense policy, interstate cooperation, federalism, 19 October 2007, intergovernmental system, project, European defense, energy threats, Commission, convention, evolution, member states, Germany, European Foreign Office, foreign and defense policy, French European policy, policy mix, diplomatic service, France

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Abstract

In 1998, Prime Minister Blair had to realize that the fact that GB did not participate in the Euro would actually marginalize her inside the European Union. He decided to recover the initiative, and to take up the subject of European defense, where GB could contribute in an important way, because of its important and effective armed forces, and find a new role.
At the same time, it became more and more evident that the EU would need an overhaul in order to be able to function after the massive enlargement which had been decided upon.
The combination of those two trends led to the project of a European Constitution.

The Copenhagen Summit and Enlargement (December 13, 2002)
Towards a European Constitution
The Treaty Establishing a European Constitution of June 19, 2004
The Problems of the European Union After the Failure of the Constitutional Treaty
The Lisbon Treaty of October 19, 2007

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Extract

[...] The Treaty Establishing a European Constitution of June It is not a real constitution, because the Member States retain their international status. At the same time there is certainly a federalist trend, which corresponds to the ulterior motives of many members of the Convention. The President of the European Council would be elected by the heads of the Member States for two years and a half, with a possible second term. He would no longer be just the leader of the State holding the rotating presidency of the Union (for only six months, as Angela Merkel during the first semester of 2007). [...]

[...] ) and its president would be elected by the European Parliament, and no longer nominated by the Governments. The attributions of the EU would now extend to Foreign and Defense policy, with the creation of an armaments authority, and a binding alliance among members (which did not exist before in the framework of the EU at least). For majority decisions, a new voting rule was decided, which was supposed to be more effective than the one decided upon in Nice: a majority vote would need 55% of the States of the overall European population. [...]

[...] As we shall see, the member countries still have diverging views about the future of the Union, and public opinion has grown markedly more skeptical. There is also a divide between the old members and the new ones, with different reactions, which complicates things: the new members want to fully use all the opportunities to develop their activity in Western Europe, with some protectionist reactions there. At the beginning of 2007, the EU seemed to be entering a crisis and was uncertain about its identity, its limits, its aims, with the still unresolved opposition between federalism and interstate cooperation. [...]

[...] But the same remarks apply to the new text as to the former one: the major difference between federalists and supporters of a more intergovernmental system has not been resolved: both kinds of evolution are still possible, because in that respect the new text is as ambiguous as the former, and there are quite diverging opinions among experts about the possible consequences of the new Treaty. And the practical results of the new voting arrangements, especially if there were to be new enlargements (for instance to Turkey) are difficult to predict. [...]

[...] Towards a Kind of European Constitution? From the Saint-Malo Franco-British Meeting to the Lisbon Treaty (1998-2007) In 1998 Prime Minister Blair had to realize that the fact that GB did not participate in the Euro would actually marginalize her inside the European Union. He decided to recover the initiative, and to take up the subject of European defense, where GB could contribute in an important way, because of its important and effective armed forces, and find a new role. At the same time, it became more and more evident that the EU would need an overhaul in order to be able to function after the massive enlargement which had been decided upon. [...]

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