Constitutional Moment or Constitutional Process?

Abstract

The European Union at a ‘crossroads’ has been a recurrent image in the European constitutional debate at least since Maastricht. It was used in the Laeken Declaration — and of course it has been used since, particularly during the ‘reflection period’ after the French and Dutch ‘no’ to the Constitutional Treaty. It is obviously meant to imply that the European Union has reached a point at which it urgently needs to decide on its future institutional path.¹ Miguel Maduro (2003: 74–102) has ironically evoked a very similar image by comparing Europe to Alice in Wonderland, when she asks the Cheshire Cat what road to take: ‘That depends on where you want to go’ is the Cat’s answer. The question is indeed whether Europe knows where it wants to go.² In the eyes of many, the Constitution was intended to give such a direction.