A Union without the “C” word or spirit
José M. de Areilza
July 10, 2007
During these last days I have had the chance to discuss a little bit more about the IGC mandate, agreed by the heads of State and government in the European Council of last June 23. As Damian Chalmers has pointed out, it is ambigous, deliberately obscure and leaves room for renegotiation of important aspects of the future Treaty Refom (see “A major re-write” www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markmardell/2007/06/a_major_rewrite.html). The one thing the mandate makes very clear is the dissapearance of the term “constitutional” from the new texts and moreover the decision to deprive them of “constitutional character”. This last prohibition is linked to the elimination of European symbols (flag, Europe’s day, anthem, motto) and of state like terms (i.e., “law” to replace regulation, etc). If that is what constitutional character means, I am not worried at all, there are very good arguments to opposse European nationalism.
But very likely the ban on the C word and the C spirit will used to go against the material constitution of the European Union that already exists, based on spirit based interpretation treaties by the ECJ and institutional practices, including national constitutional adaptations to integration. By throwing away the bath water of the Constitutional Treaty maybe we are also throwing the baby of the material constitution! To avoid this from happening, we will need refined legal interpretation and political leadership, two things the EU of 2007 is not really best at. While I was in Budapest discussing the IGC mandate, two episodes have confirmed my pessimism (a friend asked me the other day, do you know any pessimist who was wrong?). First, President Sarkozy visited the Ecofin to make very clear that his policy priorities are domestic and that he does not care too much about the need of further integration around the single currency. Second, High Representative Javier Solana scolded in public ten heads of governments (Spain’s among others) that have written an open letter in a newspaper critizicing EU and US policies towards the Middle East, without any prior consultation in the Council of Ministers.
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