European constitution

On 18 July 2003, the final draft of the constitutional treaty (officially Treaty establishing a constitution for Europe) for the European Union was published by the Praesidium of the Convention on the Future of Europe.

The objectives of the draft Constitution are, mainly, to simplify the over-lapping series of Treaties and Protocols providing the current legal constitution for Europe, and to enhance the functioning of the future Union when 10 new countries from Eastern Europe join the existing 15 member states on 1 May 2004 (see EU enlargement).

Table of contents

1 Provisions of Constitution
2 Topics and Issues of the Constitution

2.1 See also
2.2 External links

Provisions of Constitution

The draft constitution makes provision for:

the European Charter on Human Rights,
a president of the European Council elected by European governments and the European parliament,
convergence in foreign policy (subject to certain conditions),
establishment of a European foreign minister,
introduction of majority votes in many fields of politics (designed to streamline decision-making and reducing veto rights of individual countries in order to limit the amount of national bargaining notoric in European politics),
clear assignments of responsibility to the institutions of the EU, in particular locking of the principle of subsidiarity,
a more democratic and simplified decision process in the Council of Ministers (compared to the current situation),
an increased role for national parliaments and the European Parliament in the scrutiny of draft EU legislation,
adjustments to some terminology to make it easier to understand (e.g. 'European Regulation' becomes 'European law', 'European Directive' becomes 'European framework law').

Topics and Issues of the Constitution

Ratification

The treaty, if and when its text is finalised, will be subject to ratification by each country, either by parliamentary ratification or national referendum, according to the tradition of the country concerned. If approved by all Member States (including the new ones), it will be put into force as soon as possible, though the treaty currently establishes 2009 as the year when all its provisions will be in force.

Qualified Majority - Voting Weights

Talks in Brussels on 14 December 2003, originally intended to finalise the text for the constitution, stalled over this one issue and were abandoned. The constitution now looks highly unlikely to be adopted in its current form.

Concepts and Goals of Constitution