The First Outcome of the Debate on the Future of Europe: Between Deepening and Revision (2000-2002). Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 2 No. 2, February 2003

The debate on Europe’s future was sparked in the spring of 2000 in the middle of the Intergovernmental Conference when the German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer in a much-talked-about speech expressed the need for an in-depth political reflection on the purpose and future of Europe’s construction process. It wasn’t long before the main political leaders of Member States and other European institutions responded, each of them putting forward their vision and possible solutions for the challenges that lay ahead. The debate had just begun. In December, the Nice European Summit approved the Treaty that bears its name and included a Declaration, Number 23, on the future of Europe. This declaration stressed the need for profound reform of the European Union subject to a wide-ranging and open debate to be promoted by European states and institutions. The Laeken Declaration, announced a year later in December 2001, is the first bold concerted step of this new debate. Its novel language examines the Union’s challenges and the reforms required to meet these challenges, expressed in sixty-five questions. The Declaration entrusts the Intergovernmental Conference related tasks to a Convention similar to the one that drafted the European Union’s Bill of Fundamental Rights. The European Convention, comprising representatives of all European legitimacies, is at a pivotal point where the first agreements have been reached and the differences between the federalists and the intergovernmentalists are coming to the surface. The Convention’s chances of success will depend on its ability to agree on a constitutional treaty. The draft outline for this Treaty has been made public. As the work on the Convention progresses, it will be necessary to start filling in the blanks. The Constitutional Treaty Draft Project, with a strong federalist bias, seems to be a good start. It demonstrates that the Convention method works, that it enables a democratic and open debate in touch with civil society and that it is capable of achieving results