The European Union’s constitution: Ever closer in all but name

Date: 15/02/03

A draft constitution for the European Union heralds still tighter integration

OUTSIDE the convention hall, all may be discord and strife. But inside, where Europe's future is being determined, rapid headway is being made towards the continent's unification. On February 6th Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the convention's 77-year-old chairman, issued a draft of the first 16 articles of a proposed constitution for the European Union. Article 1 proclaims, in less than ringing tones, that the Union “shall administer certain common competences on a federal basis”.

Subsequent articles declare the Union's attachment to numerous worthy aims - peace, human rights, full employment, even the exploration of space. Many of the most contentious aspects of the convention's work, notably the distribution of power among the various European institutions, will be covered in clauses that have yet to be written. But there is already lots of chewy stuff for the convention's delegates and for Europe's governments to get their teeth into.

The most ardent centralisers are disappointed that the old pledge of “ever closer union”, which has spurred on Europe's integration since the Treaty of Rome in 1957, has disappeared from Mr Giscard d'Estaing's draft. But in general those who want a pan-European federation centred in Brussels are happy. The draft meets many of their longstanding demands, in particular the legal incorporation of a “charter of fundamental rights” and the establishment of an independent “legal personality” for the EU.

In Britain in particular, Eurosceptics have reacted with shock to Mr Giscard d'Estaing's draft. Some of their outrage is odd, since they are denouncing already existing European law as proof of sinister new plans for an extension of European powers. Thus William Rees-Mogg, writing in the Times, harrumphs that under this “shameful document”, “the EU would decide whether any proposed merger was legal or not”. But this has been so for many years. Indeed, in 2001 the EU even managed to block a merger between two huge American companies, General Electric and Honeywell. Similarly, Article 9, proclaiming that EU law “shall have primacy over the law of the member-states”, may well jolt those many Europeans who do not follow these matters closely, but it has actually been true for over 40 years.

Nonetheless, those who fear a further centralisation of power in Brussels have grounds for alarm. The French are upset that Article 11 will give the EU “exclusive competence” over “common commercial policy” - which could mean the end of France's right to protect its cultural and film industries. The killer clause for anti-federalists, though, is Article 12 on “shared competences”. This lists a series of policy areas where European nations “may” legislate, but only when “the Union has not exercised or ceases to exercise its competence”. It is a breathtakingly broad list, including “economic and social cohesion”, security and justice, social policy, transport and public health: in other words, most of the basic stuff of national politics.

Those who like the draft say soothingly that its sweep should not be exaggerated. Just because the EU would have supreme power over transport and social policy does not mean it would have to run the number 27 bus or indeed set levels of unemployment benefit. Yet experts at the European Commission acknowledge that Article 12 has the potential for a very wide expansion of EU powers. The language could allow for anything from tax harmonisation to the creation of a pan-European social-security system.

It would be unwise to take assurances at face value that the Union has no plans to extend its powers in these ways. After all, plans can change; few people would sign a contract letting their neighbours demolish their house, based on an oral assurance that they had no such intention.

Comment feature on the draft first sixteen articles of the Constitutional Treaty.

• Primary Source

http://european-convention.eu.int/docs/Treaty/cv00528.en03.pdf http://european-convention.eu.int/docs/Treaty/cv00528.en03.pdf

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