As Europe’s leaders seek to finally secure the ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon after the Irish “no” vote, it is time to take a step back and review the past decade of attempts at European constitutional reform in a broader perspective. This book not only discusses the changes that had been envisaged under the EU’s Constitutional Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon. It also shows, in a number of areas of European integration, the continuity of Europe’s constitutional development before and beyond Lisbon. Subjects covered are treaty-making and understanding the outcome of referendums; the process of de-pillarization and the development of the Union’s human rights agenda; citizenship, migration and foreign policy; the EU’s “social market economy”; the role of national parliaments and the pursuit to maximize executive accountability and democratic legitimacy in the EU; and issues surrounding democracy and transparency. Views on the future of European constitutionalism conclude the discussion.
Composed of essays by fifteen leading European scholars, this book demonstrates that European constitutionalism did not start with the Constitutional Treaty and that neither will it end after the Treaty of Lisbon.
From the Foreword by Jean-Luc Dehaene, former Vice-President of the Convention on the Future of Europe: “The editors are to be complimented on bringing together such high-quality contributions that analyse not only the main constitutional changes that the Treaty of Lisbon aims to achieve but also the deeper and broader constitutional developments that make the European integration process so truly unique and pervasive. This makes the book mandatory reading for European constitution- and policy-makers and all those dealing with fundamental EU matters, whether they be judges, politicians, diplomats, officials, civil society actors or academics.”
