About: constitution Archives

Germany's chief diplomat has set out new priorities for the 2007 German presidency in 2007 in his recent speech. He particularly underlined the need for a new approach towards the EU’s eastern neighbours.

Handling globalisation should be the EU's new 'raison d'être' to address the public's 'EU fatigue', argues France's European Affairs minister.

Following an audience with the Pope, German Chancellor Angela Merkel revives debate about a reference to God in the future EU constitution.

In this article, published in Politik & Kommunikation (in German), Christophe Leclercq and Kristina Hondrila from EURACTIV sum up the main issues on the agenda of the Finnish presidency.

A new report published by the UK's House of Commons urges EU leaders to "face up to the reality" that the Constitutional Treaty is "on life support" and recommends "explicitly to abandon the Treaty as a package".

Wanting to 'win back the citizens' the Finnish presidency sets out to do more than business as usual. The Turkey-Cyprus issue looms as a potential crisis.

Contrary to rumours, German political circles are not entirely focused on the World Cup: the five main political think tanks hosted German Minister of State for Europe, Günter Gloser, in Brussels.

Press commentators agree that the decision to postpone the final verdict on the shipwrecked EU Constitution until end 2008 is the biggest news having come out of the summit.

EU leaders brought in more transparency for future Council meetings and sealed 'absorption' as the new rhetoric joker on enlargement at the EU Summit.

Bowing to the inevitable, EU leaders at the summit have agreed to prolong the 'reflection period'. The final deadline for leaving the constitutional impasse will be the end of 2008.

EU leaders will meet in Brussels to confront some of the main challenges the EU is facing. While it is expected that the "reflection period" on the future of Europe will be extended, the most notable outcome will probably be the opening of Council sessions to the public.

In an exclusive interview with EURACTIV, Daniel Spoel, one of the authors of a new book on the EU's future, explains that the European Union has become part of the problem and needs to engage more with civil society.

The future of Europe after the no votes on the Constitution, the plan D activities of member states and the Commission's communication strategy passed a critical review at a conference organised by ECAS.

Detailed accession talks with Croatia will begin on 12 June. However, due to the stalemate  over the Constitution, Croatia will not be able to join the EU before the end of this decade, says EU Commissioner Rehn.

Despite reluctance of Polish political elites to discuss the fate of the EU Constitutional Treaty, public opinion in Poland is clearly in favour of a constitutional text, a recent survey shows. 

Poland should prepare for the discussions about the future of the Constitutional Treaty (CT) that will take place after the reflection period, it is argued in the common paper the Institute of Public Affairs (ISP) and the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM).

During a CEPS debate the leaders of the three biggest political European parties were unanimous in their belief that the Constitution is worth saving, but none of them had any miracle solution on offer.

The Belgian PM has prescribed 'more Europe' as the way out of the current crisis, and recommends going forward with ratification of the Constitution in spite of the no-votes.

Since the rejection of the EU Constitution in France and the Netherlands, the questions that are being frequently asked are: “What went wrong?” and “How can we set things straight?” Diagnoses and possible remedies were debated during a recent Franco-German event on the future of Europe.

In the article “Re-Launching Europe”, published by Deutsche-Aussenpolitik.De, Philipp Hessel analyses Germany’s European Policy based on Chancellor Merkels “state of the union” speech held in May 2006.

In this article of the Quarterly „Integration“ of the Institut für Europäische Politik (IEP), Daniel Göler and Mathias Jopp take systematic look at the proposed initiatives to solve the constitutional crisis.

During two-day talks on the future of the EU, EU foreign ministers agreed on the need to find a solution to the current constitution deadlock by 2009 at the latest. But how this is to be achieved remains unclear.

Commissioner Rehn has defined the EU's absorption capacity as being "about whether the EU can take in new members while continuing to function effectively”. He also warned against the "temptations of populism". 

“A missed chance to rethink Europe” wrote Welt am Sonntag in its lead article referring  to  Angela Merkel’s speech about Germany’s position on the main challenges of the EU. Most papers share the disappointment