Европейский Конвент - перспективы Конституции и распределения компетенций.

Николай Лукша © 

At its meeting in Laeken in December 2001, the European Council convened a Convention on the future of the European Union (Laeken Declaration). The task of the Convention is to pave the way for the next Intergovernmental Conference as broadly and openly as possible. It will consider the key issues arising for the Union's future development.[1  If we consider possible reasons to raise this questions that time with quite tie schedule we can admit following ones:

1. Enlargement of the European Union.  Before the enlargement present member states want to construct the future of the EU first of all according to their ideas and views. Even construction of Convention shows this intent: The accession candidate countries…will be able to take part in the proceedings without, however, being able to prevent any consensus which may emerge among the Member States.[2] Also there is a reason to prevent situations similar ratification of Nice treaty in Ireland. Convention could be considered here as a some kind of promotion of enlargement.

2. Problems with governance in EU. The first step towards reforms in governance was “White paper on European governance” that declares principles of good governance: Openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness, and coherence.[3] But there were no instruments to change decision making procedures and governing bodies. So White paper can not have enough legitimacy to provide EU with real reforms.

3. Gap between EU institutions and EU citizens. The problem is that EU now is not elected but appointed democracy. Elected body European parliament has no real legal initiative and could be considered as more or less consultative body. Other EU institutions appointed by member states represent interests of these states and have no direct legitimacy from EU citizens. As well as citizens usually do not have direct access to EU institutions (except cases of human rights violations). Also there is a problem that local levels of policy making do not integrated properly in EU institutions. Due to all these factors EU decision-making system is quite unbalanced.

There are many different views upon the future of EU and European integration. After introducing Euro Europe need new challenges to face with and also have a lot of current problems to solve. Convention is an attempt not only launch discussions on it but even make some draft on future Constitutional treaty, which has to identify:

- the objectives of the Union,

- the division of powers between the Union and its Members states,

- the reform of the CFSP,

- the reform in the area of Justice and Home Affairs,

- the reform of decision-making,

- the simplification of the treaty itself and its legal and policy instruments, including

the dissolution of the three pillar concept and combining the existing treaties. [4]

Possible features of Constitutional treaty could be not just gradual reform but quite radical reconstruction of EU institutional system including:

-         new distribution of power among supra-national, national and regional levels,

-         new construction of executive, legislative and justice system,

-         increasing of power of directly elected bodies,

-         Introducing of European citizenship not as an abstract but provided with rights and mechanisms of their implementation concept. [5] 

Main problems of Convention work could be following:

1. Interests of national bureaucracies. It is understandable that no one national – level decision-making institution wants to deliver its power to supra-national level. So new division of power and competencies could be a long process of political negotiations among member states’ representatives. Also regional and local policy levels are also interested in enforcement and increasing of their level of subsidiarity.   

2. Different visions of elites and ordinary citizens. If we compare key issues of Convention with results of Eurobarometr poll made among young people 15-24 years old we can see that enlargement of the European Union and the effectiveness of the European institutions seem to be of less interest to 15 to 24-year olds. Only 29% of the persons interviewed thought that enlargement was "very important". This Eurobarometer Flash reveals that 15 to 24-year olds feel that employment, solidarity, mobility and respect for democratic values are crucial for the European project. [6]

So due to this difference we can see new apathy from ordinary citizens (especially young) towards process of European integration just because issues important for these social groups are not in focus of EU institutions. It leads to growth of euro-skepticism and enforcement of right anti-union forces. 

Anyway creation of Convention it is a step from the question: Does Europe need a constitution? To the question: What kind of constitution needs Europe? And answer to this question could be main challenge for Convention as well as building of this constitution could be main task and challenge for Europe following 50 years.   

 Minsk, 2002