The Constitution Debate

Heinrich Schneider

European Integration online Papers (EIoP), 2003, vol. 7

Abstract: The paper deals with certain questions and problems of the constitutionalization of the European Union which did not receive very much attention from the Convention on the Future of Europe and from the observers of that Conventions work, but which, nevertheless, may be relevant whenever the results of the Conventions work are assessed and evaluated. The paper mainly deals with background problems associated with traditions of political thought in general and with basic understandings of European integration in particular. The paper also expounds on how the more recent constitution discussion, initiated due to the founding of the European Union, manifests continuities with the debates that have taken place over the past decades (since the start of the integration policy based on the Community method). However, it shows that the discussion context has become more complex. In the last section of the paper, the relationship of statics and dynamics in relation to European constitutional conceptions is treated as a subject. The question arises as to whether and to what extent the constitution concept itself is in doubt and whether or not, in connection with this, important functions, whose very performance is expected of a constitution of the European Union, remain unfulfilled.

Keywords: constitution building; constitutional change; federalism; intergovernmentalism; internationalisation; legitimacy; policy analysis; polity building; state building; supranationalism; enlargement; European Convention; founding Treaties; intergovernmental conferences; treaty reform; political science (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-03-31
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