THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION IN THE MAKING KIMMO KILJUNEN CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN POLICY STUDIES BRUSSELS Dedicated to the memory of my father, Veikko Kiljunen ISBN 92-9079-493-3 © Copyright 2004, Centre for European Policy Studies. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission of the Centre for European Policy Studies. Cover: Inaugural session of the European Convention, 28 February 2002, Hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels. Centre for European Policy Studies Place du Congrès 1, B-1000 Brussels Tel: 32 (0) 2 229.39.11 Fax: 32 (0) 2 219.41.51 e-mail: [email protected] internet: http://www.ceps.be Contents Foreword................................................................................................................ i 1. What is the European Union?....................................................................... 1 1.1 The Philadelphia Convention............................................................... 2 1.1.1 Federalists and anti-federalists ................................................. 3 1.1.2 Confederation or federation?.................................................... 5 1.2 The EU into a federal state?................................................................. 8 1.2.1 The spectre of federalism ....................................................... 10 1.3 The roots of integration...................................................................... 11 1.4 The birth of the Union........................................................................ 14 1.4.1 Beyond the common market .................................................. 16 1.5 The European Union sui generis........................................................ 17 1.5.1 Difficulties in definition......................................................... 19 1.5.2 Shared sovereignty................................................................. 20 1.6 A supranational union........................................................................ 21 1.7 Towards a post-nation-state era ......................................................... 24 1.7.1 Supranational democracy ....................................................... 25 2. The Brussels Convention............................................................................ 27 2.1 Why have a Convention?................................................................... 29 2.2 The first Convention .......................................................................... 31 2.3 The Laeken decision .......................................................................... 33 2.4 The Convention comes to order......................................................... 37 2.5 Consensus .......................................................................................... 40 2.5.1 Whom did we represent?........................................................ 41 3. The EU Constitution................................................................................... 43 3.1 Founding treaty or constitution? ........................................................ 44 3.1.1 What shall we call this treaty?................................................ 45 3.1.2 Competence competence........................................................ 46 3.2 The Constitution for Europe .............................................................. 47 3.2.1 The boundaries of Europe ...................................................... 48 3.3 Values of the Union ........................................................................... 50 3.3.1 Christian values...................................................................... 51 3.4 Objectives of the Union ..................................................................... 52 3.4.1 The languages of the Union ................................................... 53 3.5 A simpler system ............................................................................... 54 3.5.1 Directives into laws................................................................ 55 3.5.2 The Convention’s working groups......................................... 55 3.5.3 Legal personality for the Union ............................................. 57 3.6 Fundamental rights ............................................................................ 57 3.6.1 Union citizenship ................................................................... 58 3.6.2 Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Constitution............. 58 3.7 Competence of the Union .................................................................. 60 3.7.1 The tripartite division of competencies.................................. 61 3.7.2 Areas of Union competence ................................................... 62 3.8 Subsidiarity........................................................................................ 63 3.8.1 Monitoring subsidiarity.......................................................... 65 3.8.2 The regional and local levels.................................................. 67 4. Common Foreign and Security Policy ....................................................... 68 4.1 CFSP.................................................................................................. 69 4.1.1 Foreign policy included in integration ................................... 70 4.2 ESDP ................................................................................................. 71 4.2.1 Civilian crisis management .................................................... 73 4.2.2 Crisis management operations ............................................... 73 4.3 Comprehensive security..................................................................... 74 4.3.1 The position of the Social Democrats .................................... 76 4.3.2 The Convention’s proposals on foreign policy ...................... 77 4.3.3 Foreign Minister of the Union................................................ 77 4.4 The Defence working group .............................................................. 78 4.4.1 Small achievements................................................................ 79 4.4.2 Great objectives...................................................................... 80 4.5 Towards a common defence .............................................................. 82 4.5.1 Enhanced cooperation ............................................................ 82 4.5.2 Enhanced cooperation in defence policy................................ 83 4.5.3 Closed structured cooperation................................................ 84 4.5.4 The Military Capabilities Agency .......................................... 85 4.5.5 Open defence cooperation...................................................... 86 4.6 Security guarantees............................................................................ 87 4.6.1 The solidarity clause .............................................................. 88 4.6.2 Stairway to defence cooperation ............................................ 89 4.7 Security policy options ...................................................................... 90 4.7.1 The neutrality of Finland and Sweden ................................... 91 4.7.2 Old Europe and new Europe .................................................. 92 4.7.3 Credibility of the EU military capacity .................................. 93 4.7.4 Four schools of thought.......................................................... 95 5. Institutional Reform ................................................................................... 97 5.1 Compromise of the large countries .................................................. 101 5.2 EU institutions ................................................................................. 103 5.3 Giscard’s tactics............................................................................... 106 5.4 The Convention’s proposal on the institutions................................. 108 5.4.1 European Council................................................................. 108 5.4.2 Commission ......................................................................... 112 5.4.3 European Parliament ............................................................ 115 5.4.4 Council of Ministers............................................................. 118 5.4.5 Court of Justice .................................................................... 120 5.4.6 Other institutions.................................................................. 120 5.5 Qualified majority............................................................................ 121 5.5.1 Equality of member states and citizens ................................ 122 5.5.2 Voting weights..................................................................... 124 5.5.3 The night of long knives in Nice.......................................... 126 5.5.4 Simple double majority........................................................ 127 5.6 The role of national parliaments ...................................................... 128 5.6.1 Processing of EU matters in Finland.................................... 128 5.6.2 Parliamentary practice.......................................................... 130 5.6.3 National parliaments in the EU Constitution........................ 132 6. The End of the Convention .....................................................................