Towards a new European treaty: how to recover the essence of the Constitutional Treaty, without really seeming to

The European Council on 21 and 22 June, which effectively concluded Germany’s busy presidency of the EU, yielded an important agreement that was eventually accepted by all heads of state and government. This ended the constitutional impasse which the EU has weathered since France and the Netherlands voted in referendums to reject the Constitutional Treaty two years ago and another seven countries froze their ratification processes. Some of these states also used the council forum to reopen discussions on a number of institutional and material issues relating to the Constitutional Treaty which they had previously accepted and signed in Rome on 29 October 2004. This agreement opens a new phase which should lead to swift negotiation of a new text reforming the treaties that make the EU what it is today. The talks will be undertaken at a classical, EU-style Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) with a very specific timetable and mandate. In fact, the IGC’s mandate is so specific that it practically predetermines the entire content of the new treaty. This content recovers the essence of the Constitutional Treaty to a very significant extent, although the final agreement is subject to removing any formal or symbolic hint that it is a full-blown constitution, as well as including further exceptions favouring the UK. It nevertheless introduces new elements such as energy and climate change which did not feature in the Constitutional Treaty but which are considered necessary to keep the EU apace with the requirements of ever-changing times. In short, in view of the political climate in which the European Council began after two years of never-ending ‘reflection’, it is fair to say that the final outcome is reasonably positive.