What Problems Have Rendered a European Constitution Necessary?

The forthcoming expansion of the EU with its burgeoning responsibilities for greater integration set in motion a reform process at the Nice Summit in 2000, which issued a declaration calling for a 'deep and wide' (1) debate on the EU's future (5,11). The resulting Treaty of Nice (21), signed in February 2001, made certain limited changes to how the EU operated so as to facilitate enlargement. There was much criticism of the Treaty since many felt it did not address the real issues that enlargement would bring. More was needed. However, the debate on the future of Europe, called for by the Nice Declaration , led to the Laeken Summit in 2001 to establish the Convention on Europe's future (11), or a constitutional convention. This started in March 2002, with the presentation of its final report planned in June 2003 and eventually culminating in the Constitutional Treaty to be presented at the next IGC in 2004. The ongoing debate involves civil society circles, including NGOs, Trade Unions and academics as well as applicant countries (5,10,11). The revising of the EU machinery with the help of a documented constitution was felt to be necessary to tackle a plethora of interrelated problems (3,4,5,6,11,22) that the EU in its present state faces.…