Is the European Federation a “Mission Impossible”? A critical analysis of the German Constitutional Court’s judgment on the Lisbon Treaty

Summary:

The Treaty of Lisbon, also called the European Reform Treaty, is now in practice the Constitution of the European Union (EU). It takes the place of the Draft Treaty on a Constitution for Europe of 2004 which failed to obtain approval in the French and Dutch referenda held on it in 2005.

The Lisbon Treaty conceals its constitutional character in three documents – a revised Treaty on the European Union (TEU Lisbon), a Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and a Charter of Fundamental Rights – but in fact it transfers essentially the same powers and competences from the Member States to the EU as the Draft Constitution had done.