Germany sets timetable for resurrection of EU constitution

[muriel_volestrangler]

Despite misgivings from the UK, and the rejection of the treaty by voters in both France and the Netherlands, Ms Merkel said that a decision about how to resurrect the controversial treaty must be reached by June - and implemented before European elections in 2009.
...
Ms Merkel said that she would consult all 27 EU nations to see what reservations they had and which parts of the charter could be rescued to form the basis of a new document.

Although the constitution was ratified by 18 states, only Spain held a successful referendum on the issue. Other states ratified the treaty through parliamentary votes.
...
Germany wants to save as much as possible of the draft text, which was designed to accelerate policy-making and give the EU, now comprising 489 million people, more visibility on the world stage by creating the posts of EU president and foreign minister.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,,1992357,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704

I think it needs to completely rewritten - the last attempt was just too unpopular.

[Pab Sungenis]

1. The sheer girth of it was one problem.

The final draft of our Constitution (without the 27 Amendments) was about three pages. The Treaty for a Constitution for Europe had the heft of a Tom Robbins novel, and made about as much sense.

[BayCityProgressive]

2. I hope

they vote it down again.

[Apollo11]

3. A sensible approach

The European Union already has a set of agreed rules - set out in a set of Treaties that have already been ratified by all 27 Member States.

See http://europa.eu/abc/treaties/index_en.htm

The Constitutional Treaty was agreed by the Member States' national governments in October 2004. But it was rejected by national referendums in France and The Netherlands in June 2005.

In fact 2 other referendums had a positive result: Spain and Luxembourg (OK - small country).

Most of the national governments agree that the current Treaties need to be simplified, streamlined and consolidated. This is what the Constitutional Treaty was supposed to achieve.

Personally, I don't see the rush to have one Foreign Minister. Right now, the European Union has two people in charge of coordinating foreign policy:
- Javier Solana (former Secretary-General of NATO) - Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union and High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy.
- Benita Ferrero-Waldner (former Austrian Foreign Minister) - European Commissioner for External Relations.

However, in reality they cannot force all of the Member States to share the same foreign policy. So the European Union can only take action when all of the Member States are in agreement. This would still be a problem if the Constitutional Treaty was already ratified.

In any case, Foreign Ministers are not in charge of making Foreign Policy. It is really the heads of government who decide the big questions - Merkel, Blair, Chirac, Prodi, Zapatero ...

In June 2009 there will be elections across all 27 Member States to elect Members of the European Parliament for a 5-year term. This might also be an opportunity to seek some kind of popular mandate for a new slimmed-down version of the "Constitutional Treaty".