The European Convention was a gathering of politicians appointed by governments and parliaments of the EU Member States and candidate countries and representatives of the EU institutions. The task of the EU Convention was to examine how the framework and structures of the EU could be adapted to international development in general, the needs of EU citizens and the EU’s own development in relation to its enlargement.
The Convention prepared a ‘Draft Constitution for Europe’, which was the starting point for an Intergovernmental Conference of the Heads of State of Government that began in October 2003 and ended with the adoption of the ‘Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe’ at the European Council held on 17-18 June 2004. The Constitutional Treaty has not yet, however, entered into force.
The members of the European Convention began work on 28 February 2002 and the Convention’s draft Constitutional Treaty was presented to the European Council on 18 July 2003.Among other things, the Convention had to examine the issues that, according to the Declaration annexed to the Treaty of Nice, should be brought up at the 2004 Intergovernmental Conference. The Convention also examined a range of other topics. In principle, there were no limits to the topics members of the Convention could bring up for discussion, but the 2001 Laeken Declaration already included more than 64 issues which the Convention had to look at, e.g. Europe’s role in a globalised world, greater democracy, transparency and effectiveness in the EU, and a Constitution for European citizens.
One of the Convention’s methods was to set up working groups to deal with the following subjects in more depth: the principle of subsidiarity, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the EU’s legal personality, the role of national parliaments in the EU, the division of competences between the EU and the Member States, the EU’s economic policy, the EU’s foreign policy, the EU’s defence policy, simplification of the EU’s legislative procedures, EU collaboration on justice and home affairs, and Social Europe. Furthermore, discussion circles were set up to look at the organisation and competences of the Court, the budgetary procedure and the EU’s own resources.
You can read more about the Convention and the Convention’s draft Constitution on the European Convention’s website:
http://european-convention.eu.int/bienvenue.asp?lang=EN&Content=.
The Constitutional Treaty never entered in to force due to the no voting in national referendums in The Netherlands and in France in 2005. After the referendums a reflection pause was initiated and in 2007 a new Treaty was presented - the Lisbon Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty must be ratified in all member states in order for it to come into force which is not yet the case.
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The Laeken Declaration is a document central to the European Convention. The Laeken Declaration describes the Convention in more depth and sets out a series of topics for discussion by the Convention. The Laeken Declaration was adopted at the meeting of the European Council in Laeken, Belgium on 14-15 December 2001.
You can find the Laeken Declaration on the Council’s website at: http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/68827.pdf. |
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The Convention was made up of 105 members who were appointed by the governments and parliaments of the EU Member States and candidate countries and by the EU institutions. There were also alternate members and observers.
1 Chairman, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (former President of France)
Observers http://european-convention.eu.int/Static.asp?lang=EN&Content=Composition |
Sidst opdateret: 24-07-2008 - ANSJ