From the Constitutional Treaty to the Lisbon Treaty: Is the European Union on the Way to Becoming a Federal State?

Abstract

After long, difficult negotiations, the heads of state and government of the then 25 member states of the European Union and of three accession candidates signed the agreement on a constitution for Europe on 29 October 2004. The agreement was designed to replace the treaties for the European Communities and European Union that had applied to date, and to lead to deeper integration among the European states. In referenda held in France and the Netherlands on 29 May and 1 June 2005, the constitutional treaty was rejected, however, even though it had already been ratified in many EU states, and was due to come into force on 1 November 2006.

A second, longer process of negotiations was required before some core elements of the constitutional treaty were able to be secured in the Treaty of Lisbon on 13 December 2007. This came into force on 1 December 2009, after ratification in all of the then 27 member states of the EU. Even after this, the EU remains an association of states for an indefinite period, i.e. a confederation with several federative elements which are reinforced by the Treaty of Lisbon. The nation states remain sovereign, and thus retain the right to exit from the EU and together to only ceded as many sovereign competencies to the EU organs as they wish. From 1 November 2004 onwards, the EU, in accordance with the Treaty of Nice, had already switched to majority decisions in the Council of Ministers in several political areas, since unilateral decisions had become ever more difficult to achieve in the Union following its significant expansion after 1 May 2004.

Despite the astonishing success of European integration during the past half-century, it should not be assumed that further progress will continue to be made of its own accord. The more political competencies are transferred to Brussels, the more probable it will be that difficult economic and social crises will lead to a strengthening of nationalisms that blame the EU for the consequences of the crisis and which will demand a return to single statehood. At the same time, however, a crisis could strengthen the demand for tighter federal state control, thus polarising the European political system. The fact should not be overlooked that far more integrated state entities than the EU have disintegrated after decades or even centuries. A continuation of the success story of European integration requires considerable economic and social assimilation of the nations, and at the same time, a securing of national-cultural independence among the peoples and states of Europe.