Now this treaty has only been drafted as it’s still under talks and is getting it ready for the spring next year. It is the first time a constitution has been made for the European Union. This constitution has been accepted as a draft but is under careful examination from the countries governments.
Following are a couple of proposals in simple terms followed by some more in depth versions:
1. Promote economic and social progress.
Help people earn enough money and get treated fairly.
2. Speak for the European Union on the international scene.
By working as a group the EU hopes that Europe will be listened to more by other countries.
3. Introduce European citizenship.
Anyone from a member state is a citizen of the EU and gets special rights.
4. Develop Europe as an area of freedom, security and justice.
Help Europeans to live in safety, without the threat of war.
5. Maintain and build on established EU law.
Make laws that protect people’s rights in the member countries.
Here are the more in depth proposals:
The “President”
At the moment every six months a different country gets the presidency of the EU. With 15 members the UK's turn only comes round every seven and a half years. The document intends to end the current system whereby the presidency changes every six months through the members of the union. It was written as to provide a “central figure” and a focus point for the European Union. This plan seems to favour the bigger member countries rather then the smaller ones as they wouldn’t get a chance to have the presidency or be ‘on top’.
Role of Parliament
This makes laws and helps to decide how much money the EU should spend. It also checks that all the other parts of the EU are working fairly. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are elected every five years. Anyone over 18 from a member country may vote.
For many years now the European parliament has complained that it hasn't been given its proper role. The proposal is to bring it more decision/law making procedures. It wants more power as to vote on nearly all European Union decisions and elects the president of the commission. According to certain sources (BBC) the plan will be popular among the bigger countries.
European prosecutor
The proposal is to have a European prosecutor. It wishes to have more joint action in both criminal and civil law. A number of countries seem to be opposed to these proposals on the grounds that ‘inter-governmental’ co-operation is enough as it is.
Citizenship
As it stands right now everyone will have an E.U citizenship as well as having a national citizenship. This proposal allows people to live and work anywhere within the European Union. The new proposal stresses that it does not displace the rights of national citizenship.
Leaving the European Union
This proposal states that any member wishing to leave must notify the council of its intentions and as a result the union shall conclude and decide and agreement with that member setting out what is needed for its withdrawal. This is a new proposal as there wasn’t anything of the kind before. All one had to do was to repeal its legislation and leave. This proposal was designed to show that it was a voluntary association which didn’t force the membership of other countries.
The biggest single sub-category is health and consumer protection, followed by law governing enterprises, the internal market, energy and transport, and the environment.
The United Kingdoms government are planning to reject the proposals as it will undoubtedly remove ‘member’ states Veto on foreign policy. A foreign office spokesman said “the Italian draft would be rejected with out hesitation in its current form but it remained the basis for more discussions by the European Union foreign ministers”.
One of the key issues in the proposals seems to be the fact that there are different views between the smaller and larger countries. A rough view is that the smaller countries want a stronger more powerful European Commission and Parliament (both being Supranational bodies). While on the other hand larger countries favour a more inter governmental co-operation through the Council of Ministers.
Britain has struck a deal with France and Germany to go ahead with European defence policies. But France and Germany will no longer be able to dominate - weakening the European Union's "motor" - and the hard-up new members are expected to slam the brakes on the pace of EU policymaking.
There are hugely different opinions among people in the UK and the rest of Europe about whether the plans are a good idea or not. In particular there are concerns that it may lead to the countries not having as much say over the way they're run. Other people think it's a great idea to ensure all the people of Europe have the same rights and opportunities.
Many people in the United Kingdom disagree with agreeing to the constitution. They say that agreeing means all the 15 states would need to agree with each other on what needed to be done if a world issue, like the Iraq war, had to be dealt with. Some people don't think that would work very well, because during the Iraq war, the UK and Spain argued with the German and French governments.
Now the governments in all the countries have to decide whether they agree with the new plans.
It is hard to produce one flag to please everyone as it is a loss of identity, many old enemies, different countries have different tastes, the EU is a relatively new thing and many more reasons that it just isn’t that simple to satisfy all.
“The current version from 1986 boasts 12 stars - 12 being chosen as a “pleasingly perfect" symmetrical arrangement, rather than to represent member nations”.
While Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas thinks this perfection can be improved - his new flag uses 45 stripes which are vertical, taking colours from every country or member's national flag. The logo was designed in response to a request by the European Commission president Romano Prodi to find ways of rebranding the EU. People have suggested why not just add stars to the existing design as new members join the EU. The United States flag has changed 27 times since the Stars and Stripes was made in 1777 - with 25 of those changes made to add new stars as new states entered.
The old flag (left) and one of the new ideas
Overall I havent come to a decision and the real reason is because I don’t understand the proposals that well. It uses very complicated terms and is very vague at some points so I would prefer as a result to keep an open mind and to slowly research more into it and listen to the news more often.
“It is not beyond the realms of possibility that today's EU of 15 could one day become a club of more than 40 states stretching from Iceland to the Caspian - no line has yet been drawn on the map”.
references
Q&A
