Proposal for an "EU Constitution Plus"

By: Andrew Duff, MEP

In his detailed proposal for a European Constitution, Andrew Duff MEP argues that the EU constitutional treaty will only be rescued if it is improved to address the dissent expressed by key elements of public opinion. This involves finishing the uncompleted work of the original Convention, especially with respect to the reform of certain common policies of the Union.

In 'Constitution Plus', Duff rejects the arguments for a 'mini-treaty' as being "dubious law, poor tactics and bad politics". Instead, he proposes to ring-fence Parts I and II of the 2004 treaty from being opened up and advocates a "small number of highly significant improvements" to Parts III and IV, the most important of which are as follows:-

• Simplified revision procedure to Part III (Article IV-445) ‑ normal amendments to the common policies and to the operational details of the EU should enter into force once they have been ratified by four fifths of member states.
• The Charter of Fundamental Rights should be published separately as an annex to the constitution, and enjoy a unique revision procedure (Article IV-443 bis new).
• The internal consistency of the treaty would be improved by referring to full employment (rather than a 'high level' of employment) throughout (Article III-117).
• The description of the general economic policy of the EU needs to be modernised to reflect contemporary reality in an era of globalisation (Article III-177).
• The Union's detailed economic policies should be updated and expanded to include the priorities of the Lisbon agenda (Article III-178).
• With respect to economic and monetary union, the contra-cyclical intention of the excessive deficit procedure should be emphasised and the Commission's powers to propose changes in national budgetary policy increased (Article III-184).
• The Euro Group should be formalised in order to increase the leadership potential of the euro area states and to boost the drive towards structural reform (Article III-195).
• The social dimension of the single market and the objectives of an integrated European economic society should be laid down, complemented by a declaration and/or protocol of enhanced cooperation in social policy (Article III-209).
• Environmental policy should be upgraded and modified to include climate change and bio-diversity, and the goal of a resource efficient economy established (Articles III-119 and III-233).
• Reform and modernisation of the common agricultural policy (Article III-227).
• Reform of the common fisheries policy and its separation from the CAP (Article III-227 bis new).
• Reform of the common energy policy to emphasise the need for safe supply, to boost the demand for conservation and renewable energy, and to promote solidarity between member states (Article III-256).
• Installation of a new chapter on enlargement policy, including the Copenhagen criteria, the accession process, a new category of associate membership, and a stronger neighbourhood policy (Articles III-xxx-xyx).
• Addition of a new clause on communications policy between the EU and the citizen (Article III-122 bis new).

Andrew Duff also proposes that the IGC should embrace as part of its negotiations the review of the financial system of the Union scheduled for 2008-09 and, in particular, attempt as part of the negotiation to reform the own resources system.

With regard to the process, Duff proposes a new form of constitutional co-decision between the IGC and the European Parliament, and the establishment of a joint 'conciliation committee' to achieve cross-party as well as trans-national consensus.

Andrew Duff's full proposal is available for download below.