Why should the new constitution take effect?

The economic and political conditions have increased the demand for a rearrangement of responsibilities within the European Union. That means stronger democratization, transparency and efficiency of the structure. Therefore, a constitution should take effect to replace the previous treaties like the EU- EG- and EURATOM- treaties. The previous formal subdivision of the EU and the EG treaty should end. To get a more democratic and capable European Union, there should be more responsibilities.

The European Union had been an unrealistic dream of many people in different countries for years, but after the Second World War it was a real option. The effort of integration had political and economic reasons, promoted by the US.

In 1949, the European Council was formed. In 1951, the European Coal and Steel Community was created. In 1957, the EEC was created. In the 70’s and 80’s the EEC was expanded. In the early 90’s, with the enlargement of the community and the Reunification of Germany, the will for integration strengthened. In 1992, the European Union came into being on the basis of the Maastricht Treaty.

The need for a constitution for Europe.

At the beginning of the new millennium, the European Union had to face new challenges. In 2000 the basic standards of European right were redesigned with the Treaty of Nice in 2000, which introduced flexibility and reforms in view of Europe's enlargement from 15 to 27 members (by 2007). Although innovations have improved decision making and better organized EU institutions, it was born as a compromise between ideas of the member countries. For this reason, the final act was to add the "Declaration on the Future of the Union". In it the new problems to be solved by 2004 were placed.

When was the constitution signed and by whom?

After all the countries of the EU agreed on having a new constitution for the EU, a draft was designed. Because of the agreement of all member states the draft should take effect originally on November 1st 2006. The European heads of government signed the new constitution on October 29th 2004 in Rome.

The failure of the European Constitution

On December 20th 2004, the National Assembly adopted the proposal for the ratification of the Constitution of the European Union on a 322 against 12 votes with 8 abstentions. This constitution should have been ratified by all European Member States. The ratification took place by referendum in several countries. The Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and Great Britain announced that they would hold a referendum on the constitution.

But the ratification in France and the Netherlands ended in a failure.

First, the French rejected the constitution. In France, the majority of the population did not know in depth the text of the Constitutional Treaty. The French did not vote against it, but against their own government.

In the Netherlands many people were afraid that the constitution would bring an end to liberal achievements or to just a few of the liberal rights that the constitution would have abolished, according to the Dutch. Others worried about the Netherlands because of the entry of new countries into the EU, such as Turkey.

If all member states had ratified the constitution, a fundamental and the most important official document of the European Union would have come into force on November 1st 2006.

The reason for the emergence of the constitutional crisis is that although the EU jurists created the Constitution, the politicians were not able to explain the importance of the new contract to the public.

The process of integration has reached the point where it is time to finally decide what to shape the EU into: a federal community which disposes of a substantial part of the sovereignty of the member states, or a union that remains the loose alliance of these nations.

The purpose of the European Constitution, besides replacing the various existing Treaties at the time, was to create the European Union's legal basis, was to give the EU a clear political order regarding its institutions, skills, methods of decision-making, and foreign policy.
Despite the name, it was not a real constitution but a sort of Consolidated Law, in which existing legal texts were only received and reordered, with few real innovations and without any transfer of sovereignty.

So, the process fail because the Dutch and the French failed.

Sources

http://tmt.omikk.bme.hu/show_news.html?id=3983&issue_id=463

http://www.jogiforum.hu/hirek/12714

https://europa.eu/european-union/sites/europaeu/files/docs/body/treaty_establishing_a_constitution_for_europe_en.pdff

https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisszaboni_szerz%C5%91d%C3%A9s

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/HU/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Aai0033

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