Majority wants to expand and improve the EU constitution

A large majority of the Union’s governments, including the UK, wants to add new sections to the EU?constitution rather than slimming it down to purely institutional changes to avoid fresh referenda in France and the Netherlands.

Speaking after a meeting of representatives of 20 governments who back the constitution in Madrid last Friday (26 January), Alberto Navarro, Spain’s secretary of state for EU affairs, said: "The message of Madrid is that we prefer to improve the treaty rather than using scissors." Navarro was referring to a call by Nicolas Sarkozy, the right’s candidate in the French presidential elections, for a mini-treaty containing only institutional reforms which could be approved by national parliaments.

The 20 self-styled "Friends of the constitution" meeting in Madrid (the eighteen who have ratified the constitution plus Ireland and Sweden) signed a declaration saying that an "agreement [on reform of the constitution] which is limited to some institutional changes is not sufficient to meet citizens’ expectations".

The joint declaration specifically mentioned immigration, internal and external security and energy as areas where the EU needed powers to act.

Nicolas Schmit, Luxembourg’s EU affairs minister, said: "Europe does not need minimalist solutions. It needs maximalist solutions".

Possible additions to the constitution text include a social protocol setting out citizens’ rights in terms of social protection and entitlements, strengthening of EU powers in the fight against illegal immigration and action to tackle climate change and co-ordinate energy policy.

Although the UK government, which was only represented at junior diplomatic level at the meeting, would like a new treaty text which would not need a referendum, Geoff Hoon, the UK’s EU affairs minister, told European Voice that adding new elements to the constitution would not make it harder to get agreement. "No doubt if we began another round of discussions on the future of Europe we would end up in a different place. If we had further discussions on the constitution it’s hard to see that there wouldn’t be something on energy," he said, adding that energy policy had moved to the top of the EU’s agenda in the last five years in the wake of concern about climate change and fears about security of supply. He also said that immigration would be another issue that some member states, including the UK, would want a revised constitution text to address.

European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pöttering has said that the constitution should be revised to offer more solidarity to member states, especially in the field of energy where, he says, the EU should respond to Poland’s concerns about its energy supply security, given its dependence on Russia. Poland imports over 60% of its natural gas needs from Russia. Although it meets most of its energy needs from coal, which it mines domestically, the share of natural gas is set to rise to 20% by 2025 from around 12% currently. Poland’s leading opposition party, Civic Platform, has called for an energy solidarity clause to be part of any new treaty text.

Andreas Maurer, director of the EU research department at the Stiftung Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft, a Berlin-based think-tank, said that member states were proving generally "demandeur" (making fresh demands) in the ongoing talks with the German presidency on renegotiating the constitution, so the presidency’s job was to define each member state’s "bargaining chips". As countries were making demands, they could be convinced to accept other government’s requests in order to get a deal, he said.

A large majority of the Union’s governments, including the UK, wants to add new sections to the EU?constitution rather than slimming it down to purely institutional changes to avoid fresh referenda in France and the Netherlands.