No time to lose” “

The judgement that the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) expresses about the new Constitutional Treaty is on the whole positive. Though not ignoring the limitations of the text, the Brussels-based advisory body urges “member states to proceed rapidly to its ratification, which it considers a “decisive watershed for the future of European construction”. FIRM PACT BETWEEN EU INSTITUTIONS, CITIZENS AND STATES. The EESC held its own plenary assembly at the end of October. What emerged from it is a wide-ranging document dedicated to the Constitution. It begins with an invitation to accelerate the process of its national approval. To this end, says the document, “it is essential to urge everyone to put aside their personal, sectorial, professional, local and national interests: the Treaty must be examined from the viewpoint of its global political significance in the process begun over fifty years ago by the founders of the European Communities”. The document, drafted by the Frenchman Henri Malosse, declares: “The Constitution permits the existing Treaties to be replaced by an all-inclusive single text that renders more comprehensible and accessible to each citizen the functioning of the EU”. And “if its content is not ‘revolutionary’ in the strict sense, the constitutional nature of the new Treaty must mark a solution of continuity in the collective consciousness of the European peoples in their aspiration to a shared destiny”. The most evident objective of the Treaty “is clear: establishing a political Union in the name of the citizens and states of Europe”. “The fundamental hopes of European citizens are placed” at the centre of the Union’s aspirations. MANY POSITIVE ASPECTS OF THE CONSTITUTION. Other favourable aspects of the Constitution are then pointed out: the improvement of democratic legitimacy in the decision-making process; the extension of the functions of the Parliament in Strasbourg as co-legislator; the recognition of “participative democracy as principle for the functioning of the Union; the “maintenance of a more open and regular dialogue with the associations representative of civil society”; and the institution of the right of popular initiative, through which a million citizens representing a significant number of States “can invite the Commission to present a legislative proposal corresponding to their wishes”. Moreover, “the incorporation of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights in the Treaty is of great importance, since it confers binding juridical force on this Charter. In practice, this progress means that citizens will benefit from greater legal protection”. negativE JUDGEMENT ON UNANIMITY IN VOTING. But the Committee does not intend to hold its tongue about the limitations of the Constitution, whose definition was only reached “at the price of a number of compromises that represent a step backwards in relation to the draft prepared by the Convention”. The doubts pointed out in the document (which assumes the official form of “opinion” furnished at the request of the European Parliament, had already been expressed before the signing of the Charter in Rome by the then chairman of the Economic and Social Committee, the Frenchman Roger Briesch. The former trades-unionist from Lorraine had firmly pointed his finger especially at the maintenance of the vote by unanimity in some important sectors (foreign policy, taxation, social policy, common security, and EU budget), with the risk of blocking the decisions and activities of the Twenty-Five. Briesch also expected some further progress to be made in the area of the extension of the powers of Parliament and the role of the EESC itself. Also modest is “the incisiveness of EU governance on matters of economic and employment policy”. The document also laments the absence in the Constitution of rules that provide for the consultation of the European Parliament and the Committee itself in these fields”. A WOMAN TO CHAIR THE COMMITTEE. The Committee recently elected its new chairperson. She is Anne-Marie Sigmund, an Austrian citizen but born in Bratislava, a lawyer by profession, who confirmed “the priority commitment of the Committee to involve citizens in this important phase in the life of the Union, also thanks to a intensive information campaign”. Set up by the Treaty of Rome in 1957, the EESC is an advisory body of the EU, “constituted – explained the Treaty of Nice in 2001 – by representatives of the various components of economic and social character of organized civil society”. Its role is to offer “a privileged space of representation, information and expression”.