The Future of the EU Constitution: Escaping the Ratification Maze

JURIST - Forum

"The Future of the EU Constitution: Escaping the Ratification Maze

JURIST Guest Columnist Dr. Laurent Pech, Jean Monnet Lecturer in European Union Law at the National University of Ireland, Galway, says that while it's too early to abandon the troubled European constitution, significant strategic and political adjustments are required before it can secure ratification by enough states to bring it into force...

Is the EU Constitution condemned to the dustbin of history?

The auguries are not good. Although quite amusing, it may not be entirely exact to claim, as Denis Macshane, the UK’s Europe minister from 2002 to 2005, did recently, that “[t]he thing is as dead as Monty Python’s famous parrot”. Predictions are always problematic. Ideological considerations or wishful thinking can cloud critical thinking. It appears clear, however, that the EU "Constitution" – it is also described as a "Constitutional Treaty" by those willing to emphasize its true legal nature – simply cannot survive in its 2004 form. At the time of writing, fifteen EU Member States – already representing a majority of the Member States – have ratified the text. The next European country scheduled to ratify it is Finland, which assumed the rotating six-month presidency of the EU Council on July 1, 2006. The negative outcome of the 2005 referenda in France and in the Netherlands has, however, made the final outcome of the ratification process rather uncertain. "