- 2004: Constitutional Treaty
Already at Nice, national leaders had agreed that the Treaty did little to tackle problems related to the growing size and heterogeneity of the Union in future. The basic idea of the Constitution was to replace all existing treaties through one single document. The Three pillar structure introduced by the Maastricht Treaty was abolished and the Charter of Fundamental Rights incorporated into the Treaty framework. The European Union was given legal personality for the first time. The remit of the co-decision procedure was extended and became the ordinary legislative procedure. The biggest changes have been made as regards the institutions:
- From 2014 the size of the College (Commission) is to correspond to two-thirds of the number of member-states
- Enhanced role of the President of the Commission who is to select the Commission members
- The European Council is established as a separate institution of the European Union and is to elect its own president by QMV for a 2,5 year term which is renewable once
- A double majority formula is introduced in the Council of Ministers:
- A majority must at least represent 55 % of the member states and represent at least 65 % of the EU population
- There is a new Union Minister for Foreign Affairs appointed by the European Council on QMV
- Conducts the Union’s foreign and security policy
- Vice President of the Commission
- European Parliament seats to be increased from 732 to 750
- Its power is strengthened through the extension of the co-decision procedure
In 2005, France and the Netherlands have not been able to ratify the Constitutional Treaty where referenda had to be held due to their national constitutions. The failure of ratification put a hold to other ratification processes going on in the rest of the member states and though the EU back to the question “what now?” since the EU was put into a deadlock situation: If the Constitutional Treaty could not be ratified and the Nice Treaty did not provide enough preparation for the future enlargements and functioning of the Union, a new Treaty would have to be set up.
