Knowing in order to choose

EU citizens are called to elect the European Parliament from 4 to 7 June. This event of “participative democracy” is happening however within an EU legislative framework that is consolidated and – in part – overtaken. In fact the Lisbon Treaty, defined in 2007 to reform the EU’s institutional system after the major enlargement in 2004, remains on hold, following its rejection in the Irish referendum in June 2008. Through the treaties, which represent the constitutional foundations of the process of European integration, it is possible to reconstruct a kind of history of Europe through the gradual evolution of its legal framework.[For previous fact files in this series see SIR Europe nos. 9-11-13-15-17-20-21-23-26-30-35/2009]From the ECSC to the EEC. The first official step in the process towards a united Europe was taken in 1951. In the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 the then French Foreign Minister invited the governments of Western Europe to place in common the management of their resources of coal and steel: a first step towards the realization of “common interests” which, by starting out from the economy, would later generate other developments at the political level. Schuman’s bold proposal thus led to the Treaty that established the European Coal and Steel Community, signed in Paris on 18 April 1951: it came into force on 23 July 1952. There were six founding countries of the ECSC: France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. In view of the success of the continent’s first supranational community, a further development came in 1954 with the European Defence Community (EDC) Treaty, though this was never in fact ratified. Despite that, the process continued: not without backtracking and re-launches, a further development of collaboration between the six countries of the “little Europe” was achieved on 25 March 1957 when they signed two Treaties: the one that established the EEC (European Economic Community) and the other that established Euratom or, more precisely, the European Community of Atomic Energy. Single Act and Maastricht. Then, for almost thirty years, the developments of the Community were not accompanied by any particular need to “re-write the rules”. This need was however powerfully felt in the mid-1980s, when the EEC enlarged its own borders (with the accession of the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Greece) and extended its own powers and common policies. This gave rise in turn to the European Single Act (signed on 28 February 1986, it came into force on 1st July 1987); it aimed to complete the single market by 1992 and promote greater economic, social and monetary cohesion. The historic turning point represented by the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989) and the subsequent application for membership by former countries of the Soviet bloc posed unprecedented challenges to the EEC. A memorable day in the annals of Europe followed on 7 February 1992 : the day of the baptism of the Treaty of Maastricht (or, rather, Treaty on the European Union, which came into force on 1st November 1993). It transformed the EEC into the EU and established its three “pillars”: the Community dimension; external policy and common security; and cooperation in the sectors of justice and internal affairs. Provision was also made in the treaty for the future creation of the single currency.Recent developments. Subsequent developments include a reform of some of the key provisions of Maastricht. The Treaty of Amsterdam was signed on 2 October 1997 (it came into force on 1st May 1999: further community-wide policies; mini-reform of the institutions). The Treaty of Nice was signed in turn on 26 February 2001 (operational since 1st February 2003); its aim was to formulate the necessary institutional reforms for enlargement, including the composition of the European Parliament. Other attempts to structure European integration in a more precise and comprehensive way were made in more recent years. The Charter of Fundamental Rights, or “Charter of Nice”, dates to December 2000. This was followed by the “constitutional period” which, through the work of the Convention and the Intergovernmental Conference, led to the signing of the EU Constitution in Rome on 29 October 2004. But the text that ought to have replaced the existing Treaties was rejected by the referendums called to ratify it in France and the Netherlands in the spring of 2005. Lisbon, and then? The last stage concerns the Lisbon Treaty, or Reform Treaty, which, while maintaining the structure and substance of the EU Constitution, renounced its “constitutional” value. Signed by the heads of state and of government in the Portuguese capital on 13 December 2007, it has so far been ratified by 26 States. A second referendum is now awaited in Ireland; if this is positive, it would open the way for the Treaty to come into force on 1st January 2010. The major achievements of Lisbon include the reinforcement of the role of the European Parliament in the EU legislative process, and the creation of a long-term President of the EU Council (in office for two and a half years, instead of the current six months). The main advance of Lisbon however is its provision of a further extension of community policies and those in which it would be possible to decide by a majority, limiting the power of veto to some strategic sectors, such as tax, foreign policy and social policy.