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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 08/05
After 'Non' and 'Nee': Plans B, C, and D for the European Constitution
Daniel Gould
June 2005
Abstract
The proposed European Constitution, which was just voted down in France and the Netherlands, is technically a treaty containing far-reaching amendments to the present set of treaties governing the European Union. Article 48 of the EU treaty text currently in force specifies that any such amendments first be unanimously approved by the governments of the member states within an Inter- Governmental Conference framework and then ratified by each country. The first, intergovernmental step of ratification was completed October 29, 2004.
What has run aground now with the French and Dutch referenda is the second step-required, unanimous ratification by European member states. The likely halt to efforts to ratify the current document will force a reconsideration of the European Union's legal alternatives for governance.
