An ever closer union : a critical analysis of the Draft Treaty establishing the European Union

Abstract

The Draft Treaty establishing the European Union is the most ambitious effort so far to achieve sweeping institutional reform in the European Communities, and the clearest proof of the new independence of the directly elected European Parliament. Apart from its immediate political significance, it has re-opened the debate on institutional and substantive reform of the European Communities at both the governmental and the public levels. This book offers a comprehensive political, economic and legal analysis of the Draft Treaty, and a realistic assessment of the political and constitutional hurdles it faces in the Member States. The usefulness of this book, however, is not limited to its analysis of the Draft Treaty itself. The papers collected in this volume incisively examine the state of the current Communities in many of their aspects, and the observations and recommendations made by the authors bear careful reflection by all those engaged in the ongoing discussion of the fate of the European Communities. The first part of this book includes studies of Community reform on the institutional, judicial, economic and foreign relations dimensions seen through the perspective of the Draft Treaty. The second part deals with the constitutional and political problems of trying to amend or replace the Treaty of Rome. This issue includes the legal status of the procedure established for ratification and the position of the Draft Treaty in the Member States.