A Liberal Proposal for a Constitution for Europe

Testo disponibile solo in lingua inglese.
The traditional «centralist» model of European unification is now so lumbered with problems as to appear obsolete. The path to political union followed hitherto has led nowhere simply because it is littered with too many errors: the attempt to reach the destination by a roundabout route, the mechanical transposition of national government models at European level, incrementalism, functionalism, the failure to assert clear liberal values. Now that communism has collapsed, the great risks which European institutions have to avert are statism and elitism. Hence the liberal project for European political union drawn up by the European Constitutional Group sets out to prevent the errors of the past and present being perpetuated in the future. It pivots on four main points: the Union's exercise of powers delegated by member states; concern with integration processes as opposed to their end results; the preservation of multiple jurisdictions; and the involvement of national institutions in matters of Union jurisdiction.