23/05/2005 9:01:55 am
The Proposed EU Constitution. Quite a few people, not least bloggers, have recently been asking me about my views on the proposed EU Constitution. Let me be very clear from the start: I am not, and have never been, in favour of the proposal. Honestly, it should be said that it is better than the current treaties in many ways, but it is not a good Constitution. Its main flaw, which goes to the core purpose of a Constitution, being that it doesn′t set a clear limit for EU public power. (Though I believe that the most important limit for the EU is the principle of unanimous decisions and many member countries.) Having said this, that I don′t like the proposal, there are still many more aspects of the development that have to be analysed. What happens if this proposal is turned down? Well, economics teaches us that if there is a demand, there will be a supply. If we need an EU Constition, there will be a new proposal. But will it be better? Since the French reject it - if they do - because it is not socialist enough, that implies that the next one will be more socialist. (And there is no way that it will not be a compromise and thus never a "perfect" proposal.) But a more socialist proposal would not be accepted in many other countries, fortunately. So my belief is that the countries that want to have common decision-making on social matters will form such a union and EU-25 will share mainly the common market. And that is not too bad.