New-look constitution is the biggest diplomatic challenge facing the EU

AFTER the euphoria of the Eurofest and Berlin declaration to celebrate the EU’s 50th anniversary at the weekend, it’s back to real politics for member states and their political leaders.

They need to come up with a new-look constitution that covers how the EU is managed and what it can do as soon as possible, but above all will be ratified by all member states. The first time they tried to answer criticism that the union was not democratic was by setting up a convention of three government and opposition politicians from every national government to draw up the new treaty in the full light of day.

Every country fought for what they wanted included or omitted and the result covered most of what was needed to allow the union to operate in the modern world. The leaders promised it would end the succession of treaties from the EU for 20 years at least. But the French and Dutch scuppered that one and despite 17 of the 27 countries having voted to accept the constitution, it is back in the melting pot. It looks, however, like attempts to deliver democratic accountability through a multi-national convention made up of elected representatives has been declared a failure.