PROJECT ON THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTIONAL TREATY

 

In October 2006, the Royal University Institute of European Studies of the CEU San Pablo University, the European University Institute of Florence and the Rafael del Pino Foundation started a research project entitled "The future of the European Constitutional Treaty and the scenarios for a way out of the current situation".

 

OBJECTIVES

The main objectives of the project were the following:

  • To identify and evaluate the innovations of the draft Constitutional Treaty

In the first phase of the project, completed in May 2007, the research team has identified the main innovations in the text of the draft Constitutional Treaty in terms of efficiency, democracy, transparency and visibility of the Union. The group has identified the shortcomings of the Constitutional Treaty with a view to possible future discussion. It also studied the "Cost of the Non-Constitution", i.e. the loss that would occur if the European Constitutional Treaty did not enter into force. Finally, the ways in which some of these innovations could be introduced in the event that the Constitutional Treaty in its current version does not enter into force have been analysed.

  • Presenting options for a way out of the current crisis

In the second phase of the project, an analysis of the different scenarios for exiting the current crisis was carried out and the advantages and disadvantages of each of the options that the European Union could adopt to overcome the current situation were studied.

 

PUBLICATIONS

In the first phase of the project, the research team produced a report identifying the main innovations of the Constitutional Treaty, also pointing out the gaps that could be filled in a subsequent negotiation. This report highlights the Cost of the Non-Constitution, i.e. the loss that would occur if the European Constitutional Treaty did not enter into force. In the second phase of the project, the different possibilities for getting out of the current situation have been analysed by producing a report entitled Exits from the European Constitutional Impasse.

This report was presented in Brussels to the President of the European Parliament and the European Commission.

As a result of the research, a publication was produced and presented at the headquarters of the Royal University Institute of European Studies on 11 December 2007.