CONSTITUTION FOR EUROPE - A CONSTITUTION WITHOUT A STATE?

On 29 October 2004 the Constitution for Europe was solemnly signed in Rome. However, it still needs ratification by each of the 25 member states, of which at least 10 will hold a national referendum to decide whether the Constitution should be adopted. The idea of the Constitution for Europe is to deepen the process of European integration, to strengthen the democratic principles, to bring the European Union closer to the European citizens, and to increase the clarity of the functioning of the Union. The term: ‘Constitution for Europe’ may sounds pompous and indeed, in a political context, it may give rise to strong controversies because constitutions are normally characterised by a certain elementary identity, being, at the same time, a showcase of their respective sovereign states. And yet, the European Union is not, even does not display some features of a budding state, a state as would be construed within the classical definitions functioning in public law. In the case of the EU, neither the state territory, nor the nation is of primary character, but each of those has only a derivative nature. The territorial scope of the applicability of the Union legislation is nothing else but a sum of the territories of the member states. The so-called European ‘citizenship’ turns out to be an artificial creation, which can only be ‘attached’ to the citizenship from another state and as such it does not remove or supersede the latter. Further, also the criterion of the state authority is burdened with a structural deficit because it lacks the character of the competence o f competence, which still remains in the hands o f the member states being the 'rulers of the Treaties’. The aim of the paper, apart from the presentation of a new organisational order of the European Union as a legal entity, is to identify the main prospects and chances before the emerging European federal state. The Basic Rights Chart included in the Constitution, solemnly proclaimed on 8 December 2000 in Nice, constitutes a cornerstone in the process of building a constitutional order in Europe