Realists, Sceptics and Opponents: Opposition to the EU’s Constitutional Treaty

This paper looks at the work of the anti-EU movement over the whole of the process of producing the Constitutional Treaty for Europe, from the 1990s, when they were quick to highlight and fight any move towards constitutionalisation, through to the current ratification procedures. At each stage, the work and the impact of the movement will be considered, so as to provide a sense of the dialect between the process and the movement's attitude towards it, since the latter would appear to be more dynamic than might be initially thought. The conclusion then aims to draw out some of the lessons and suggest some future paths for the movement.