Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe
Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe

Author(s): Aneta Világi
Subject(s): Politics, Constitutional Law, International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: treaty; Slovakia; 2005; constitution; Constitution for Europe; EU;
Summary/Abstract: Although history of European integration has known discussions about the final direction of the European Union, the so-called finalité, for as long as since the 1950’s, the text entitled “constitution”, for many federalists a sign of hope that European integration will move towards a federal state, emerged only recently. The modern history of constitution in Europe can be surveyed back to year 2000 when the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Joschka Fischer, on the ground of Humboldt University, gave his breakthrough speech in which he retrieved the idea of drafting the European Constitution. In the following months, other important figures of European politics joined in debates about the necessity, advantages and disadvantages of such a step. Following the unsatisfying results of negotiations about the Treaty of Nice (December 2000) and following the call of the Laeken Declaration (December 2001), the task to draw up the Constitution for the EU was finally taken over by the European Convention, which appointed itself into this role. The final text of the Treaty elaborated based on negotiations of this Convention – and as many critics claim, originating mainly from the quills of Valéry Giscard d’Estaigne – was first submitted to the European Council in December 2003. The representatives of EU member states did not reach an agreement on the final draft of the text of the Constitutional Treaty (CT) and, therefore, after negotiations and adjustments, the document was resubmitted to the European Council in June 2004 when it finally gained a general approval. The representatives of all EU member states signed the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in October 2004 in Rome. The year of 2005 became very crucial for CT as it was the year of its ratification.

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