These slides where created as part of the European Union Course taught by Franziska Lindhout at Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

1. The European Union
Events from The Treaty of Nice until and including
The Berlin Declaration
Nishanth P P
EE10B068
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2. The Treaty of Nice – what
it could have included
 European Union institutions complicated, wide-ranging
institutional reform required
 Pillar structure overly complicated
 No European Public Prosecutor
 European Community and the EU to be merged and EU
to be given legal personality
 German regions demanded clearer separation of the
powers of the Union from the Member States
 Charter of Fundamental Rights not included in the
Treaty, opposition by the UK
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3. After The Treaty of Nice
 Prodi Commission ended in Oct 2004
 José Manuel Barroso (EPP candidate) voted
President of the European Commission by the
Parliament on 22nd July 2004, assumed office on
22nd Nov 2004, incumbent! (Again in 2009)
José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission. Image courtesy euobserver.com
EPP - European People's Party, the victorious Europarty in the 6th and the
7th European Parliament Elections, 2004 and 2009 resp.
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4. Barroso Commission
 28 members
 REACH - 1st June 2007
 Eurotariff - 30th June 2007
 Bolkestein directive - a single internal market for services, on 28th
December 2006 (implemented in 2009) - Polish Plumber
The first meeting of the Barroso Commission in 2004.The poster featuring the so-called "Polish Plumber".
I am staying in Poland, do come over en masse. Image courtesies Wikipedia.org
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5. The European Convention
 Laken European Council
meet in 2001 proposed a
Convention to form a draft
Constitution of the EU
 Philadelphia Convention -
Constitution of the United
States (1787!)
 105 members, presided by
Valéry Giscard
 “Convention on the Future
of Europe”
 What was the need?
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, President of the
European Convention. Image courtesy
wikipedia.org
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6. The Need for a Constitution
 Greater democracy, transparency and efficiency
 One Constitution to simplify and replace all the
other treaties
 Decide how power should be divided between the
EU and the member states
 Determine the role of national parliaments within
the EU
 Pave way for more enlargement
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7. The European Constitution
 Convention called for an IGC in 2004 after preparing
the draft
 Integrated all previous treaties into one, excluding
the Euratom
Why was it not included?
IGC – Inter-Governmental Conference
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8. The European Constitution
 Convention called for an IGC in 2004 after preparing
the draft
 Integrated all previous treaties into one, excluding
the Euratom
Anti-nuclear sentiment
 Provisions can be divided into four parts
 Part I – Defines the European Union, its values, objectives,
powers, decision-making procedures and institutions
 Part II - Charter of Fundamental Rights
 Part III - policies and functioning of the EU
 Part IV - Final provisions, including the procedures for
adopting and revising the Constitution 8

9. The Founding Principles of
the Union
 Legally binding status to the Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the EU
 Single legal personality to EU under international law
(merger of the European Community with the European
Union)
 Competences (exclusive, shared and supporting) and their
distribution between the Member States and the Union
 Withdrawal clause (Greenland 1985)
 Solidarity clause (Madrid 2004 train attacks)
 Simplified jargon and number of legal instruments
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10. The Institutions
 European Parliament seats: Degressively proportional
 Rotating Presidency of European Council discarded,
President elected for 2.5 years (0.5 years earlier)
 Size of Commission reduced from 2014 onwards, number of
Commissioners equal to 2/3 the number of Member States
(equal earlier)
 President of Commission elected by the Parliament based
on a proposal from the European Council
 Minister for Foreign Affairs (replacing External Relations
Commissioner and the High Representative for the
Common Foreign and Security Policy attached to the
Council)
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11. Decision-making
 More day-to-day decisions in the Council of Ministers by
qualified majority voting, double majority (55% majority
of members representing a 65% majority of citizens) and
unanimous only for sensitive areas like tax, social
security, foreign policy and defence.
 Blocking minority requires a minimum of 4 member
states.
Why wouldn’t the 65% rule suffice?
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12. Decision-making
 More day-to-day decisions in the Council of Ministers by
qualified majority voting, double majority (55% majority
of members representing a 65% majority of citizens) and
unanimous only for sensitive areas like tax, social
security, foreign policy and defence.
 Blocking minority requires a minimum of 4 member
states.
Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom
 Both the European Parliament and the Council of
Ministers were obliged to meet in public for legislative
proposals (transparency of proceedings)
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13. Union policies
 Eurogroup
 Pillar structure abolished.
 Common defence policy - Creation of a European Defence
Agency and authorisation of enhanced cooperation in this
field
 Freedom, security and justice through
 Implementation of common policies on asylum, immigration
and external border control
 Europol and Eurojust
 European Public Prosecutor's Office
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14. Ratification
 25 EU governments signed the Treaty in Rome
 20th Feb 2005 – Spanish referendum approved of it by
76% with 43% participation
 13 countries approved of the constitution by
parliamentary voting, 2 by accession
 29th May 2005 – The French rejected the Constitution
by a margin of 55% to 45% on a turnout of 69%
 1st June 2005 – The Dutch rejected the Constitution
just 3 days later by a margin of 61% to 39% on a turnout
of 62%
 Double whammy for the EU – Highly unexpected
 Luxembourg nevertheless held a referendum on 10th
July 2005 and 57% approved of it with a turnout of 88%
 Remaining members cancelled their referendums
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15. Ratification
Ratification of the Constitutional treaty. Image courtesy Wikipedia.org
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16. What happened?
 Why did the French reject it?
Extensive campaigning to reject the Constitution. Image courtesy dw.de
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17. What happened?
 Why did the French reject it?
 Fear of negative effect on employment – it would enable low-
wage workers from Eastern Europe to migrate to France and
compete for scarce jobs
 Economic situation in France was bad and the Constitution was
too economically liberal
 Not easily comprehensible (480 main + 400 pages of appendices)
 Turkish membership
 62% of “no” voters thought a it would mean the Constitution
would be renegotiated
 Many on the left thought it would enforce a neoliberal economic
model, claiming it would make the French economy worse
 Many on the right opposed it saying France should not be part of
any institution whose decisions can take precedence over what is
decided in France at a national level
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18. Political scene in France
 French PM, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, (UMP), resigned after France's
rejection of the European Constitution (31st May 2005)
 Francois Hollande (current French President) led the Yes side of the
Socialist party, the main opposition
 Laurent Fabius, former PM, (centre right of the Socialist Party) led
the No side, switching to the left of the party, to gain the upper
hand within it before the next presidential elections, in case of
success of the No vote. He argued that the Constitution will be
renegotiated.
 Even though they won, Laurent Fabius lost the race to the
presidential primaries for the 2007 elections due to his divisive role.
 The proponents of the Yes eventually got the upper hand in the
party.
 Renegotiation extremely difficult - diverse reasons for the rejection
of the treaty, ranging from the far left who saw the Constitution as
a "capitalists' charter", to the far right who opposed it on
nationalistic grounds
UMP - Union for a Popular Movement, the French ruling party (2002 – 2012)
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19. What happened?
 Why did the Dutch reject it?
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20. What happened?
 Why did the Dutch reject it?
 Means to show their dissatisfaction with the government
 Turkish membership
 Declining influence of the Netherlands in the EU
 Euro was implemented without the people’s opinion
 Increase in immigration, or an outsourcing of jobs to new
eastern European members (though the Constitution didn’t
explicitly mention it)
 Aggressive and ruthless campaigning for “Yes” also put off
many, where a “No” was portrayed to imply holocausts,
genocides and terrorist attacks
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21. Possible options
 Continue with the ratification and deal with
France and The Netherlands later
 Revise the constitution (delicate product of many
compromises, hence difficult to tweak)
 Hold a revote
 Salvage parts of the constitution
Which one should they choose?
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22. “Period of Reflection”
 “Group of Wise Men”, 16 members, first met in Rome
on 30th Sep 2006 to recommend course of action
 The Amato Group - Action Committee for European
Democracy (ACED), backed by the Barroso Commission
 Presented its report on 4th June 2007, proposing an IGC
for a new treaty which would
 rewrite the Treaty on EU
 amend the Treaty establishing the European Community
 give the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU a legally
binding status.
 The new treaty would be based on the Parts I and IV of
the Constitution, the rest of the Constitution’s changes
being achieved through amendments to the Treaty of
Rome.
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23. The Amato Group
 The new Treaty on EU
 Defines framework of the
European Union
 Part I and Part IV of the European
Constitution
 The amended Treaty establishing
the European Community explains
 policy areas of the Union
 law and decision making
procedures
 Which law or decision making
procedure to be followed in a
certain policy area
 Charter of Fundamental Rights
would have the same legal value
as the new TEU and the amended
TEEC
Former Italian prime minister Giuliano Amato
Image courtesy giornalettismo.com
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24. 2007 Enlargement
 Treaty of accession signed on 25th April 2005
 Romania and Bulgaria became members of the EU
on 1st Jan 2007
 At the European Council meet in 2007, Member
States agreed to abandon the Constitution and to
amend the existing treaties, which would remain
in force, as recommended by the Amato Group
 A new IGC to negotiate the new treaty was formed
 This new treaty, referred to as the Reform Treaty,
become the Lisbon Treaty on its signing in Lisbon
on 13th December 2007.
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25. Berlin Declaration
 Signed on 25th March 2007 in Berlin, celebrating the
50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome
which founded the European Economic Community.
 Reflect over the EU's history and aims, and provide
impetus to its reform process
 Ended the “Period of Reflection”
 The German presidency followed up on the issue by
brokering a consensus for what later became known
as the Treaty of Lisbon
 This declaration outlined the intention of all Member
States to agree on a new treaty in time for the 2009
Parliamentary elections, that is to have a ratified
treaty before mid-2009
 Signed only by Angela Merkel, Hans Pottering and
Barroso
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26. Debate
 Is a referendum really necessary?
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27. Debate
 Referendums are a
demagogue’s dream
 Decisions affecting 502 million
EU citizens can be scrapped
even if everyone agrees except
for a few hundreds in a country.
 Too complex for mechanics,
hairstylists, or dentists to easily
understand all effects
 Positive developments get
blocked for no good reason
when people vent their anger
over their Governments via
referendums
 Referendums give the people
a voice, democracy!
 Impose truly democratic
checks and balances on
politicians’ and bureaucrats’
decisions and produce policies
that better reflect the needs
of ordinary people
 Referendum campaigns can
energize public opinion and
make sure citizens are fully
informed about EU policies
 Gives polices the stamp of
popular approval
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