European Convention

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The European Convention (from Latin conventus for “gathering”) is the “Fundamental Rights Convention ” (1999/2000), the “Constitutional Convention” (2002/2003) and the planned Convention for a reform of the European Economic and Monetary Union .

The first convention

The first European convention , the "Fundamental Rights Convention " under the direction of Roman Herzog , drew up the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union between December 1999 and October 2000 .

Constitutional Convention

The European Convention ( "Constitutional Convention") developed between the 28. February 2002 and the 20th July 2003 the relevant draft of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe .

The convention was composed of government and parliamentary representatives from the member states of the European Union , the ten acceding countries and candidates (Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey) as well as representatives from the European Parliament and the European Commission .

prehistory

After the failure of the European Council conference in Nice in 2000, the heads of state and government of the EU signed the Laeken Declaration on the future of the European Union in December 2001, a “Convention on the Future of Europe” to draw up a constitution made up of representatives of the governments, the European Commission as well as the European Parliament and the national parliaments.

In this context, the declaration emphasizes the historical importance of European unification and Europe's peace mission. The history of the EU is a success story, now not only the economic but also the political union must be expanded. In addition to simplifying existing EU law, democratization, reducing bureaucracy, closeness to the citizen and the clarification of responsibilities within the EU are named as work objectives.

Approach of the Convention

The Convention as an institution itself was a big change compared to the drafting of the previous treaties. The “Convention Method” was previously successful in the drafting of the European Charter of Fundamental Rights .

In the past, amendments to European treaties were always negotiated between governments, mostly in camera, in order to then be ratified by the national parliaments afterwards.

composition

The “constitutional fathers and mothers” in the Convention came from various organs. In addition to government representatives, parliamentarians from the European Parliament and the parliaments of the member states were also directly involved in the drafting.

Members of the Convention were 16 MEPs, 2 national MPs per member state as well as a government representative (a total of 30 or 15 representatives), two representatives from the EU Commission and the Convention President with his two deputies; The 10 Eastern European candidate countries ( EU enlargement ) as well as Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria each sent two representatives from their national parliaments and one government representative, and participated as observers without voting rights . The members each had a de facto deputy with equal rights.

The German representatives in the European Convention were Elmar Brok ( CDU ), Klaus Hänsch ( SPD ) and Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann ( PDS ) as representatives of the European Parliament, Jürgen Meyer (SPD) as representatives of the Bundestag, Erwin Teufel (CDU) as representatives of the Federal Councilor and Joschka Fischer ( B90 / The Greens ) - before November 2002 Peter Glotz (SPD) - as government representatives.

structure

President of the European Convention was the former President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing . Together with his Vice-Presidents Giuliano Amato and Jean-Luc Dehaene , and nine other members, including the German Klaus Hänsch as a representative of the European Parliament, he established the Presidium of the Convention .

Youth Convention

As a subsidiary body of the Constitutional Convention, the Youth Convention took place from July 9th to 12th, 2002 in the European Parliament in Brussels. This was also occupied by 210 members between 18 and 25 years of age, each member of the convention was allowed to nominate a member for the youth convention. The Youth Convention issued a final declaration that should be taken into account by the Constitutional Convention.

Publications

During the working hours of the convention, the members of the convention endeavored to achieve transparency and democratic working methods in order to meet the high demands placed on the convention.

That is why all Convention documents and the draft constitutional treaty can be viewed on the Convention's website.

chronology

According to the original schedule, the Constitutional Treaty should by initial on 4 October 2003 Intergovernmental Conference adopted and signed simultaneously with the accession of ten new Member States on 1 May 2004. After the failure of the European Council in Brussels on 12./13. December 2003 this original schedule was not adhered to. The constitution was signed on October 29, 2004.

The article on the European Constitution describes further developments.

The undemocratic convention?

Voices on the fringes of the Convention

On the fringes and after the end of the convention, several convention members criticized and discussed in public that the working methods of the convention were generally too opaque and not very democratic.

British Convention member David Heathcoat-Amory wrote : “The real discussions [within the Convention] took place in the Bureau, or between the Presidency, the Secretariat and in private talks with individual member states. Even the working groups were regularly ignored or their conclusions were ignored. ”Heathcoat-Amory is a British Euro-skeptic and belonged to a minority group in the Convention led by Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde.

Luxembourg Prime Minister Juncker complained in a similar way: “The Convention has been announced as the great democracy show. I have never seen a darker darkroom than the Convention. ”You have to know that Jean-Claude Juncker, with his predecessor in office and former Commission President Jacques Santer, had a“ personal representative ”in the Convention, who apparently had a bad opinion of him Has informed the names of conversations and agreements.

The rules of procedure of the Convention

A closer look at the Convention's rules of procedure provides information on the justification of this criticism. The Convention's current rules of procedure can be found in the Convention document CONV 9/02. The changes compared to the first draft of the Presidium (CONV 3/02) are highlighted here.

It is correct that the original ideas of the Convention envisaged a very tight control from above. In the draft of CONV 3/02 only the President of the Convention, i.e. H. Giscard d'Estaing, alone the right to set the dates of the convention and thus how often it is called, to set the agenda (Art. 2), to convene working groups (Art. 15) and to change the rules of procedure (Art. 16). In addition, the first draft of the Presidium provided for fewer rights for observers and participants with observer status, and alternate members did not have the right to participate in meetings.

In document CONV 9/02, these structures are clearly softened. In the first draft, Art. 1 said succinctly: The Convention is convened by its chairman. , this wording changed to: The convention is convened by its chairman with the consent of the Praesidium or upon written request of a significant number of members of the convention. This formulation still leaves room for interpretation, but shows a certain shift in power towards the majority of parliamentarians in the Convention.

Conclusion

The allegations are difficult to clarify in retrospect. Nevertheless, the accusations, such as those made by the declared opponent of Europe Heathcoat-Amory (see above), can be partially refuted in their severity.

European Convention under the Lisbon Treaty

According to Article 48 , the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union can be amended according to an ordinary and a simplified amendment procedure. The ordinary procedure provides for a European Convention to be convened by the President of the European Council .

Extract from Art. 48 (3)

Consolidated version of the Treaty on European Union - Title VI: Final provisions - Article 48 (ex Article 48 TEU)
Official Journal No. 115 of 09/05/2008 pp. 0041 - 0043
Art. 48
(ex-Article 48 TEU)
(3) If the European Council, after hearing the European Parliament and the Commission, decides by a simple majority to examine the proposed changes, the President of the European Council shall convene a convention of representatives of the national parliaments, the heads of state and government of the member states, the European Parliament and the Commission. The European Central Bank is also heard in the event of institutional changes in the currency area. The Convention examines the draft amendments and, by consensus, adopts a recommendation addressed to a conference of representatives of the governments of the Member States under paragraph 4.
The European Council can decide by a simple majority, with the consent of the European Parliament, not to convene a convention if its convocation is not justified by the scope of the planned changes. In this case, the European Council sets the mandate for a conference of representatives of the governments of the Member States.

European Convention for Reform of the EMU

If ordinary treaty amendments require a convention, a convention to reform the EU treaty on issues relating to the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) will also become mandatory. Discussions on this already took place on the fringes of the European Council on October 23, 2011. At the center of the reform should be the design of a fiscal union that allows direct intervention in the taxation and budgeting of euro member countries if they receive financial help from their partners receive. Such a fiscal union would bundle a number of individual measures and anchor them institutionally, such as the Euro Plus Pact , the European Semester or the regulations of the so-called "Six-Pack".

In Germany, in October 2011 at the latest, the political discussion about the need for a renewed reform of the EU treaties began after Chancellor Angela Merkel had advocated this in a government statement. The instrument of the European Convention was also brought into play. Alliance 90 / The Greens are calling for a public debate on the treaty changes. A European Convention is to prepare the ordinary treaty amendment procedure together with the social partners and civil society.

In November 2011, the German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle also spoke out in favor of a convention and pleaded for all EU member states to be included, not just the 17 euro countries. Also in November 2011, voices from civil society called for a European Convention to establish a political union and effective consequences for the violation of the contractually agreed financial and economic community standards. In addition, rules would have to be found how EU member states can be excluded from the EU in the event of permanent violation of minimum democratic standards for freedom of the press and freedom of expression, independent judiciary and corruption-free administration.

In his “State of the Union Address” in September 2012, Commission President Barroso also proposed extensive treaty amendments that would also result in a Convention.

In December 2012, the proposals for a reform of contract law - and thus for a convention - were initially postponed.

literature

Constitutional Convention

  • Ulrike Liebert, Josef Falke, Kathrin Packham, Daniel Allnoch (eds.): Constitutional experiment. Europe on the way to transnational democracy? Lit Verlag 2003, ISBN 3-8258-7102-9 .
  • Heinz Kleger (Ed.): The convent as a laboratory. Texts and documents on the European constitutional process. LIT, Münster: 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7576-8 .
  • Carolin Rüger: From the dream? The long road to an EU constitution. Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-8288-8966-2 .
  • Daniel Göler: The New European Constitutional Debate. State of development and options for the Convention. Europa Union Verlag, Bonn 2002, ISBN 3-7713-0613-2 .
  • Daniel Göler: Deliberation - A future model for European decision-making? Analysis of the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention 2002-2003. Nomos Verlag, Baden-Baden 2006, ISBN 3-8329-1939-2 .
  • Peter Becker, Olaf Leiße : The future of Europe. The Convention on the Future of the European Union . VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-531-14100-7 (comprehensive overview of the European Convention, its history, its goals and its results).
  • Hubert Klinger: The Convention. A new institute of European constitutional law. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55214-4 .

See also

Web links

Constitutional Convention

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Youth Convention on the Future of Europe - four young women represent the European Commission . European Commission. July 9, 2002. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
  2. ^ David Heathcoat-Amory: The European Constitutionand what it means for Britain ( English , PDF) The Center for Policy Study. Archived from the original on January 30, 2012. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  3. ↑ Ghostly hike . The mirror. June 16, 2003. Archived from the original on February 28, 2007. Retrieved on April 2, 2019.
  4. ↑ a b Art. 48 in EUR-Lex , eur-lex.europa.eu
  5. ↑ Der Standard: Summit is likely to initiate major EU reform
  6. ^ REGIERUNGonline: Government declaration by Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel at the European Council and the Euro Summit on October 26, 2011 in Brussels in front of the German Bundestag on October 26, 2011 in Berlin  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bundesregierung.de  
  7. ↑ EurActiv.de: EU Treaty: Greens call for a European Convention
  8. ^ German Bundestag: Westerwelle advocates changes to the EU treaty through the EU Convention
  9. ↑ European Movement: Spöri in EurActiv: Why the European Convention is an Opportunity
  10. ↑ Barroso wants a confederation and a new EU treaty. Stern.de , January 12, 2013, accessed on January 13, 2013 . and State of the Union speech 2012: EU Commission President Barroso calls for a federation of nation states and announces proposals for deepening economic and monetary union. European Commission , September 2012, accessed January 13, 2013 .
  11. ↑ Carsten Volkery : EU postpones reform summit in Brussels EU postpones reforms to summer 2013. Spiegel online , December 14, 2012, accessed on January 13, 2013 .