The European Union: Creating A Constituion

The Economist ^ | Feb 26th 2002 | unk

[Jeremy_Bentham]

The founding fathers, maybe

Feb 26th 2002
From The Economist Global Agenda

This week European notables launch what has been grandly dubbed the European Union's constitutional convention. The EU faces big challenges, not least enlargement to the east, that seem to demand a big overhaul. But winning agreement on these will not be easy.

PAST it? Valéry Giscard d’Estaing has a riposte to those who say he is too old to preside over the European Union’s constitutional convention, which gets under way in Brussels on February 28th. He is 76; Benjamin Franklin was 81 when he played a leading role in the Philadelphia convention of 1787 that gave birth to the constitution of the United States.

The former French president is only half joking. The regular invocation of Philadelphia by delegates to Europe’s convention shows the depth of their ambitions—or pretensions. Unlike the delegates in Philadelphia, the 105 representatives of European governments, parliaments and institutions who will assemble in Brussels are not united around the belief that they are forging a single nation. Those who hope the convention will give birth to a United States of Europe are likely to be disappointed. But the central constitutional question facing the EU would be instantly recognisable to a Madison or a Hamilton: how much power should individual states retain, and how much should be handed over to a central, federal authority?

The EU’s 15 countries declared last December that they needed a constitutional convention because “the Union stands at a crossroads, a defining moment in its existence.” Such melodramatic talk suits those keen to press on with “ever closer union”. But the EU does indeed face big challenges, which may require constitutional change.

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[Jeremy_Bentham]

[weikel]

The constitution of the EU " To all ordinary people of the Eu you have no rights you are our slaves all your base are belong to us".

[Shermy]

Now I understand the extremity of the Eurocrats about America, especially the French and German ones. The exaggerated fear of U.S. power and "unilateralism" is an attempt to influence the writing of the EU Constitution. The centralists are using the American bogeyman for their own local purposes.

[Jeremy_Bentham]

I know that you're being sarcastic, but I think that since each nation has a desire to protect its sovereignty, a constitution may limited the EU's powers, which is a good thing, IMO. I hope this is the case, unless the covention is stacked with Eurocrats, in which case your sarcastic scenario may become a starling reality.

[VaBthang4]

Okay...

Are fring elements in Northern Africa trying to apply for membership into the EU or not?

[weikel]

I think the EU constitution will be able to be summed up in " We own you all your base are belong to us".

[Jeremy_Bentham]

The Germans like to float this idea every once in a while, but most Europeans are leary of it, for obvious reasons.

[Jeremy_Bentham]

Are fring elements in Northern Africa trying to apply for membership into the EU or not?

Not that I know of; why do you ask?

[Billthedrill]

Well, the stakes aren't quite as immediate for the EU delegates - they don't face a hangman's noose if it doesn't work out...I hope...

But the central constitutional question facing the EU would be instantly recognisable to a Madison or a Hamilton: how much power should individual states retain, and how much should be handed over to a central, federal authority?

...the original arrangement of which resulted, 80 years later, in a war to settle different interpretations of that very issue. And that was between people with a common language and pretty much a common cultural heritage, at least by comparison to the members of the EU. This is not a light matter.

[Jeremy_Bentham]

What you say is quite true. This is quite an important issue. Hopefully Europe is tired of wars, but who knows.

[Ohioan]

Unlike the delegates in Philadelphia, the 105 representatives of European governments, parliaments and institutions who will assemble in Brussels are not united around the belief that they are forging a single nation.

While the delegates did indeed have a sense of an American Nation--a concept of a new shared ethnicity, born in struggle--as well as their respective State identities--they were not forging a single nation. They were creating a Federal Government, with limited functions, intended to serve those interests that they had in common. The EU, by intruding into such outlandish things as relations between the sexes, and how the sexually normal treat asexuals, as well as dictating ethnic relations and attitudes, has already gone beyond what the Founding Fathers entrusted to the new Federal Union. While it did provide for uniform laws on immigration and naturalization, it left up to the States, communities and individuals, how they would view each other.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[Momaw Nadon]

If Europe wants a constitution then the best idea IMHO is just to copy the U.S. Constitution.

[joeyman]

Here's the European Declaration of Independence:

We are not America.

Here's the European Constitution:

You vill do as you are told! Obedience to the state is paramount. Everything not prohibited is mandatory...this for the greater good of course.

[Jeremy_Bentham]

While it did provide for uniform laws on immigration and naturalization, it left up to the States, communities and individuals, how they would view each other.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I believe that, unless the convention is stacked with Eurocrats, this is probably what will occur. European nations are quite jealous of their sovereignty, and it is unlikely that they will be willing to give the EU control of their internal affairs.

I suspect that any European constitution, if devised by the delegates of the member states, will limit the EU to trade, monetary policy, and those things related to them, and this is as it should be.

[leadhead]

European Union's constitutional convention

Should read ...constipational convention