Rethinking Europe's Constitution

The beginnings of this book go back to 2003 when the editor asked the contributors and several others to participate in an expert meeting on the Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which at that time had just been made public All participants agreed that, in view of the importance of the subject and its relative neglect in the literature, which is predominantly descriptive rather than normative, is more concerned with details than fundamentals, and generally eschews all comparison with the U.S.A., the papers presented at the meeting should be collected into a book. Subsequently, all went to work and towards the end of 2004 most participants at the meeting had completed their contribution to the book. During the editing process, however, something happened which nobody – least of all the editor – had taken into consideration. In May and June 2005 – as we all know – the French and Dutch people rejected the Draft Treaty in a referendum, thus bringing the constitutional process to a sudden standstill. One and a half years later, at the moment of writing this introduction, around Christmas 2006, no change or movement forward is yet visible. Everyone agrees that something needs to be done, but no one really seems to know what. The editor, having been taken by surprise, decided to wait and see what was going to happen. After all, it was no longer possible to publish the essays as they were, since they had been superseded by the political developments. After a while it became clear that until 2008 or 2009 no significant political decisions, which could break the deadlock, were to be expected. Hence, there were only two options: either to cancel the whole project, or to ask the contributors to rewrite their papers. Considering their high quality, the decision was easy. The editor asked the contributors to revise their papers in such a manner that they would also answer the question: • What should be the basic legal framework of institutions of the European Union in the near and not-so-near future? In other words: what would be essential constitutional elements of a modified Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe? (Never mind whether it will be called a ‘Constitution’ or not.) The result is the book you are holding in your hands. We hope that it will be of some use in thinking through the question that should be – but is not – on everyone’s mind because it is a question of invaluable importance for the future of Europe: What should become of the European Union?