EU faces a constitutional paradox (Andrew Duff MEP)

Andrew Duff MEP <info@andrewduffmep.org.uk>

EU faces a constitutional paradox

March 30, 2006 3:00 PM

Andrew Duff speaking at the Citizens Forum

Andrew Duff speaking at a Citizen's Forum in Brussels

Chairing a citizens forum meeting today in the European Parliament on the fate of Europe's constitution, Andrew Duff MEP (Lib Dem, UK), ALDE spokesperson on constitutional affairs highlighted the paradox facing Europe:

"On the one hand, the European Union cannot accept a straight rejection of its constitutional document that laid out improvements to its effective functioning with 25 Member States, yet on the other hand it seems incapable of convincing the wider public to say 'yes' to it. The double rejection last year by France and Netherlands came as shock therapy to Europe's supranational structure that agrees on what needs to be done but is unable to persuade the electorate to go along with the remedy, " declared Mr. Duff.

"Political parties across Europe are chiefly to blame for failing to act as an adequate conduit for the flow of ideas on Europe's evolution and for not stimulating intelligent discourse on necessary reform. If the citizens of Europe are not able to debate the issues openly, alongside domestic political debates, there will never be a consensus on moving forward and avoiding stagnation of the European success story that has brought us so far in 50 years," he added.

"It is essential that we get both national parliaments and citizens for a more involved in the process of determining Europe's future. An initial inter-parliamentary forum is planned for Europe Day on 8-9 May, to be followed by another in the autumn and culminating in late 2007 when a decision needs to be taken on what to do with the Constitution - adopt it, drop it or modify it," Andrew Duff concluded.

Andrew Duff favors changes to be made to the Draft constitutional Treaty, in particular to Part III on the common policies of the Union, in order to improve economic governance, to reform Europe's social model, to provide environmental and climate-related security standards, to define a common energy policy and finally to establish EU borders.