Reflections on the "European constituent process"

The Author poses the question of what is needed to qualify the process as a constitutional one. At Laeken's meeting of 15-16 December, it was created a new entity, the Convention, which received the mandate of drawing the European Constitution. The Convention didn’t have a democratic legitimacy because it wasn’t elected by people. The popular consultation should be the only way to remedy this deficit. But the referendum opens a series of problems: what kind of referendum? A national or a European one? Furthermore when the European Constitution enters in force, it might be incompatible with national ones, which of them will prevail? In addition, the problem of conflict of jurisdiction could arise between national Constitutional Courts and their European counterpart