For a Constitution of the citizens

The Convention has entered its decisive period. The next few months will show whether the Convention is able to produce a coherent draft for a federal European Constitution or if it will fail. Now that the Presidium has published the first drafts for the articles, it is time to set out some criteria to judge it by. The various and numerous amendments put forward show that the Presidium’s draft has not entirely achieved a consensus among the Convention members.

JEF should encourage all those who are willing to support the aim of a more democratic and efficient Europe on a federal basis.

1. JEF acknowledges the efforts of the Presidium in drafting the first articles.

2. In order to arrive to a real federal and democratic Union, JEF asks for some considerable improvements as much as possible.

3. JEF demands that the Convention be more courageous in seeking deeper integration.

4. JEF stresses that the Convention should try to stick to its timetable as much as possible. Nevertheless the Convention members should not be forced to adopt an insufficient proposal by the presidium, which is not in line with the majority opinion of the Convention members.

5. JEF points out that slogans are not enough to bring the Union closer to its people and that more concrete actions are needed.

On the details:

6. JEF disapproves of the reference to the “Union of peoples and states” in article 1. It should refer instead to the character of “a Union of citizens and states”. The future EU should be built primarily on its citizens.

7. JEF welcomes the explicit reference to giving the Union a federal basis, in article 1 of the draft. JEF insists that the Convention withstand any attempts to delete this formula, but instead ensures that the constitution provides for a true federal Union.

8. The preservation of national identity should include a reference on the local and regional dimension of Europe. The reference in Art. 9 §6 is not sufficient.

9. JEF is very concerned about the attempt of the Presidium to place the Charter of Fundamental rights in the second part of the Constitution. The citizens need to have a clear und understandable text which defines their rights in a clear manner. The Charter must therefore be in the first part of the constitution, after art. 5 of the Presidium’s draft.

10. JEF demands that individual citizens have the right to bring an action before the ECJ, in cases of violation of a fundamental right.

11. JEF criticizes the Presidium’s draft of the legal instruments for refering to the possibility of exclusion of the European Parliament from decision-making (art. 25§ 2). The Parliament and the Council must act on an equal basis in every area.

12. JEF regrets the failure to establish a strong Single Foreign and Security Policy in the proposals of the Presidium. The draft is a step backwards. What we need is a will and a real competence for a Single Foreign and Security Policy as well as a common defence system.

13. JEF rejects the Presidium’s proposal to exclude the areas of Single Foreign and Security Policy and Justice and Home Affairs from the institutional framework of the Union, which is based on codecision procedure and qualified majority voting. Both must figure in the framework of other competences.

14. JEF disapproves of the draft protocol on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality, as long as it does not guarantee the right of national parliaments (both chambers) and legislative regions to take ex-post legal action if these principles are violated. JEF demands that a revised version of the protocol includes those rights.

15. JEF is disappointed that the Convention has not yet taken the opportunity to present a transparent and comprehensible division of competencies. The distribution of distribution of power and definition of competences competencies has to be understandable to clarify where democratic responsibility lies.