13th September 2004
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010
Toward a pop EU Constitution
On June 18, 2004, the European Council, made up of the leaders of each member state, approved the final draft of the Constitutional Treaty-the culmination of more than three years of negotiations.
Following its translation into each of the EU's official languages and the subsequent comprehensive legal review, the Constitution is scheduled to be officially signed on October 29, 2004, in Rome. Then, each member state will need to ratify the Constitution before it can become law. The amount of time necessary to secure ratification among the member states is estimated at two years. If this period is exceeded, the European Council will be forced to reconsider the situation. The manner in which each member state ratifies the Constitution will be determined by each state's own legal tradition.
Ratification may be accomplished by one of two methods: by parliament or by public referendum. Both President Kwaśniewski and Prime Minister Belka have indicated a willingness to submit the proposed Constitution to public vote, as opposed to going through the Sejm. However, a final decision has not been made.
Of the 25 member states, five have announced plans to submit the Constitution to popular vote for approval. These five include the United Kingdom, Spain, Denmark, Portugal and Ireland. Along with Poland, Luxembourg, Belgium, France and the Netherlands have also indicated a desire to submit approval of the Constitution to a popular vote, but to date have not made a final decision. The majority of member states, however, will most likely only submit the Constitution to their respective parliaments for ratification. Italy, for instance, is prevented from holding a public referendum by its national constitution. The German parliament, the Bundestag, has rejected the idea of a public referendum.
In Slovakia, President Gasparovic and Prime Minister Dzurinda have both announced their opposition to a public referendum.
So why the need for a Constitution? In a nutshell, to simplify government and to give the EU a single legal personality. At present, the EU is governed by a collection of treaties, some dating back more than 50 years. Many of these have, of course, been amended over the years, including most recently by the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) and the Treaty of Nice (2001). Furthermore, each Treaty of Accession entered into by the respective member states also governs the operation of the EU. But the Constitution is intended to replace all of these treaties, thereby incorporating EU law into one document.
In addition to replacing the existing treaties with one document, the Constitution introduces many structural and procedural changes, including the reduction of the number of current legal instruments available to the EU from 15 to six. Moreover, the minimum limit for a qualified majority as used in voting has been defined as 55 percent of the member states representing at least 65 percent of the EU's population. A qualified minority of at least four member states may now block proposed legislation.
In cases when the European Council acts on its own initiative or in response to the request of only one member state, the qualified majority will be raised to 72 percent of the Council's members representing at least 65 percent of the EU's population. Decisions affecting taxation and certain areas of foreign and defense policy will still require unanimous approval. Amendments to the Constitution itself will require unanimous agreement of the member states.
Furthermore, national parliaments will now be informed in advance of any proposed EU legislation, and if at least one third of them reject the proposed initiative, the EU Commission will now be required to rethink its proposal.
Additional changes include the future creation of a European public prosecutor, initially empowered to prosecute financial crimes against EU interests, with the understanding that this agency's scope of powers may be expanded to include prosecution of serious crimes.
And finally, for those hardcore Euro-skeptics, the Constitution even provides a little something that might win your vote: the right for each member state to leave the EU.
From Warsaw Business Journal by Paul Fogo
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