For European Citizenship

Testo disponibile solo in lingua inglese.
The first item on the agenda of the 1996 Intergovernmental Conference will be the dilemma between enlargement and cohesion of the European Union. The widely canvassed solution of a two-speed Europe was recently reformulated by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in his proposal for a two-tier Europe (with the Northern area of the DM on the one hand, and the Latin or Mediterranean area of the Ffr on the other) held together by the Paris-Bonn axis. But neither of the projects solves the problem of the «democracy deficiency» in community institutions. Hence the diffidence and aloofness of European citizens vis-à-vis the very idea of a united Europe. It is now necessary to rethink the constitutional foundations of the Union. Seen from this angle, the Proposal for a European Constitution described here by Frank Vibert is an invaluable contribution. The only way to make up for the present lack of democracy is by creating effective European citizenship. But this seems somewhat at loggerheads with the project's proposal to accentuate the role of national states to the detriment of community institutions.