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01-067 Foff Fed Eng News Is Europe heading towards a federal constitution? BY UWE LEONARDY There have been ideas and ideals about a European Constitution ever since the The European Union (EU) is a hybrid. Joint Foreign and Defence Policy, and original six-member European Community Although originating in international 3) provisions on co-operation in the was founded more than four decades ago. law it contains numerous elements of areas of police and administration of Now, for the first time, these ideas are a state’s constitution. It has wide- justice. emerging into the realm of political reality— ranging legislative powers which it in part because of the anticipated The European Commission is the mainly exercises in the name of so- expansion of the EU. “guardian of the Treaties” and the called “community objectives”, i.e. “motor of integration”, exercising the Leading politicians have taken up the broadly defined political aims rather sole right of legislative initiative and challenge. than clear-cut competence provisions. carrying out functions similar to those of the executive branch of a nation- In May 2000, Joschka Fischer, the German At the same time it establishes a state. Foreign Minister, got the ball rolling with a comprehensive set of institutions controversial speech where he reflected on both for the making of the EU’s own The Council of Ministers (with the the next phase in European integration. laws and for co-ordinating functions European Council of the Heads of Shortly thereafter the argument was joined between the Union and its member Governments at its top) and the by French President Jacques Chirac and states. Its capacity to create laws of its (elected) European Parliament now Jacques Delors, former President of the own, which are binding either directly share the right of legislation in most European Commission. on individual citizens (“ordinances”) fields. The European Court of Justice Last fall, shortly before the European or on the member states as frame- has the last word in disputes both on Council met in Nice, Prime Minister Tony work rules (“directives”), distinguishes the applicability of EU law itself and Blair presented the British response in a the EU from all other international on the conformity of national law speech in Warsaw entitled Superpower— bodies. (including constitutional law) with the supranational rules. not Superstate. The first to weigh in after The “constitution” of the EU is set out the signing of the Treaty of Nice in February in texts of international law, The EC originally had 6 member was the German Federal President commonly referred to as “the states. It now has 15. Currently it is Johannes Rau, with a Plea for a European Treaties”: first the Treaty on the expanding, mainly into eastern Constitution in an address to the European European Economic Community of Europe—with the aim of growing to a Parliament early in April 2001. 1957, and second, the Treaty on the possible 27 member states. The Early in May 2001, the German Social European Union of 1992 (the existing decision-making process is Democratic Party—at the instigation of its Maastricht Treaty), revised by the quite cumbersome. Some cases still leader Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder— Treaty of Amsterdam of 1997 and require unanimity and many others published a Draft Resolution, Responsiblity presently under revision again by require qualified majorities in a for Europe which the Party will consider at the 2001 Treaty of Nice. complicated system of weighted voting. That is why many believe it is its Convention in the fall. The Union Treaty distinguishes necessary to devise a kind of new between 3 component parts of the Finally, late in May, French Prime Minister “European constitution” before the EU EU, known as its 3 “pillars”: 1) the EC Lionel Jospin entered the fray with a series gets much bigger. of detailed proposals laid out in a speech as the centrepiece of full in Paris. supranational activity, 2) rules on Some common ground There are vast differences in the proposals put forward by these leaders. But they all agree on a few points—almost all of which are covered by the Treaty of Nice: Federations volume 1, number 5, summer 2001 • a new system of weighting the votes an economic and political superpower— “Statement of Principles” on this matter— of the member states in the Council; not, in its constitution and organization, a political not a legal document in a a superstate. “charter of competencies”. • a considerable increase in the matters decided by majority voting; Britain is not alone in having reservations A European “Senate” and an on this point. On the delicate question of • rules for the future maximum size both executive branch sovereignty—whether divided, joint, of the European Parliament and of the national or EU—there is a wide divergence Commission (after EU expansion); On the future institutional structure the of views among the member states. most “federalist” ideas are those • an “officialization”, though still not in Although Jospin and Chirac disagree on proposing a bicameral EU Legislature, a legally binding form, of a Charter of many details, they agree that, in Jospin’s which are contained in the German and Basic Rights; words, they are committed to “making the British concepts. Rau and Schroeder Europe without unmaking France.” • and a pledge to define the legislative suggest that the EU Council of Ministers competencies of the EU vis-à-vis its be converted into a Chamber of States member states in clearer and more (similar to the German Bundesrat) with A time to define terms calculable terms than exist at present the present European Parliament as an When you consider the degree of (to be achieved by 2004). equally empowered Chamber of Citizens. disagreement it is obvious there is still There is also general agreement on the Fischer discusses an elected Senate as an a long way to go towards a European need for more transparency and optional model for the second chamber. Constitution and in particular to a democracy in the EU-structures. Blair, however, prefers this chamber to generally understood and accepted consist of members of the national “federal” one. In addition, nobody is proposing parliaments. abolishing the sovereign nation-states Despite this, the Treaty of Nice constitutes that make up the EU—whatever its future Similar proposals for “indirect election” a decisive and even compelling point of constitutional shape. also come into play in some visions on departure down the road to a “federal restructuring the European Parliament. Europe”. The Treaty started a public Then there are the many more points Fischer wants only members of the debate on the question of the distribution where the main players are in national parliaments in it, while Delors of powers among different orders of disagreement. proposes a (transitional) parliament government—a process which it pledges of the “avantgarde” that would be will result in concrete changes by 2004. A constitution for Europe? composed equally of members of The agreement to distribute authority and national parliaments and of the responsibility between different levels of On the need for a European Constitution current European Parliament. government is the hallmark of a federal as such, Rau, Fischer, Delors and (though system. Once achieved such agreement vague in substance) Chirac are in favour. As for an executive branch of government would become the centre-piece of a Schroeder is silent on the issue. Rau’s for the EU, Rau and Schroeder want the federal constitution for Europe. plea outspokenly aims at a Federation of present Commission to serve that National States comprising all member function, while Fischer has floated the This debate will inevitably have two main states from its start. option of either developing a European effects. First, it will bring to the surface Government out of the present European the reality that the EU is, by its very Fischer, however, sees a European Council or of having the President of the existence as a supranational body, already Federation as the last step towards Commission popularly elected. Jospin a kind of functionally determined integration by a Constitutional Treaty. But suggested that the winning bloc of parties federation. And second, it will prove that he asserts that this step can be achieved in European elections select a Delors is only too right in stating that only after temporarily creating a centre of Commission President. “federalism”, “subsidiarity”, “constitution” gravity—organized under a new European and “charter” do not have the same Basic Treaty with a Constitution of its meaning for everyone. own—for a select group of those member Is a federal structure emerging? states who are prepared to go ahead and And so, the political debate, as it stands Where the new Europe really starts to act as a kind of vanguard for the rest. now, is obscured by misunderstandings look more and more federal is in the and sometimes deliberate distortions of Delors comes closest to that, while Chirac proposals for a division of powers those terms. agrees with the idea of such a Vanguard between the EU and the governments Group but one that would not have a of its member states. If the people of Europe are to make a treaty and institutions of its own. Instead lucid decision about their future they’ll All agree that a clear demarcation of he prefers intensified cooperation open have to arrive at some consensus as to legislative powers would be an essential to all—which should end in a European what words such as ”constitution” mean part of a future European Constitution. Constitution that would include a Charter in the context of the EU. And to achieve But legally such a step would entail a of Basic Rights.
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