Constitution: Foreign ministers set 2009 deadline[fr][de] 

So far, few concrete proposals have emerged from the “reflection period” on the future of the EU that was launched after the rejection of the EU Constitution by the citizens of France and the Netherlands in May/June 2005. 

EU foreign ministers meeting in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna, on 27 and 28 May have pledged to find an agreement on the future legal basis of the EU by 2009 at the latest.

Saying that “nobody pronounced the constitution dead”, Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik welcomed the “emergence of the first building blocks of a new consensus in the debate on the future of the EU”.

The German government, taking over the rotating presidency in January 2007, is expected to put forward concrete proposals on how to proceed until June 2007, after the elections in France and the Netherlands. According to German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, these might include a name change. 

EU foreign ministers did not endorse the idea of EU Commission President Barroso to sign a solemn declaration on the EU’s goals and values on the occasion of the 50 year anniversary of the European Community in 2007 (see also EurActiv, 15 May 2006). Neither did they endorse his proposal to extend qualified majority voting in the area of justice and criminal matters by using the so-called 'passerelle clause' in the current Nice Treaty (see also EurActiv, 9 May 2006). 

The extension of the “reflection period” is set to be included in the conclusions of the EU summit taking place in Brussels on 15 and 16 June 2006.