European constitution

Once again former PM Carl Bildt has written a very interesting post. This time about the European Constitution and if there every will be a new constitutional treaty. The old one has died somewhere along the road after last year’s big no in the referendum elections in both France and The Netherlands.

That the old Constitutional Treaty is dead is obvious to everyone although officially acknowledged by few. That it was recently ratified by Finland and Estonia was nice, but little more than that. It was like paying homage to the heroes of the past.

I spent a lot of time in France last year working and I remember the long and sometimes very heated discussions in the mini EU (French, Brits, Dutch, Belgian, Czechs and Swedes) our office was made up by. As usual the French and Dutch where the one with the most arguments. The French were for the constitution and the Dutch against it. But something that we all could agree on was that the word constitutional was little too much. It’s just a very big and strong word.

The C-word will be gone. And it will be given a more proper designation. Institutional reform is what it is really all about. In substance, I would expect it to differ little from these parts of the much larger Constitutional Treaty.

If the dreaded C- word will be gone or not the next time around remain to be seen, but I have a feeling the whole EU will make this treaty a lot smaller and not so important. They can’t afford another defeat. It's time to get the people of Europe with them instead of against them.