Bill and the fall of the Constitutional Treaty

Abstract:

The European Union, and before it the Community, has always seemed to lack a bit of pizzazz. Twenty years ago, the Adonnino Committee ventured the case for European flags and hymns and orchestras and so on. And the sentiment clearly resonated with those who were tasked with the need to shape a new European Constitution for the twenty-first century. To this end, amongst the trinkets recommended by the Convention and depicted in Article I-8 of the Constitutional Treaty was a Europe Day, to be celebrated on 7 May each year. The date was chosen because it would also serve to celebrate the original Schuman Declaration of 1950. The felt need for such a day, and such a celebration, lies at the heart of this article, which further seeks to address the wider debates which continue to oscillate around the nature of constitutions and constitutionalism in the new Europe. These debates, for obvious reasons, have become all the more intense following the various setbacks experienced as a result of the serial refusal of the Union’s citizens to ratify the proposed Constitutional Treaty. As we consider the deeper anxieties which pervade this current debate, we will also endeavour to investigate a further related issue which continues to haunt the new Europe, that of narrative and history, or its lack. And, by way of coincidence – which like so many coincidences is not entirely one at all – we shall do this in the context provided by Tim Luscombe’s recently produced play, The Schuman Plan. Schuman, it seems, haunts the European Union.