"Who will speak for Europe once the Constitutional Treaty is ratified?"

Allen, David. (2005) "Who will speak for Europe once the Constitutional Treaty is ratified?". In: UNSPECIFIED, Austin, Texas. (Unpublished)

	Plain Text Download (32Kb)
	Microsoft Word Download (59Kb)

Abstract

[From the Introduction]. Observers of EU external policy have much to speculate upon following agreement amongst the EU member states on a new Constitutional Treaty. In the two years that it will probably take to try and get the Treaty ratified by all the current 25 member states there will be much discussion about how the new arrangements for the development and implementation of the EU’s external policies will work in practice (For an excellent recent overview see Grevi, Manca and Quille, 2005). If the Treaty is ratified then the EU will be given a legal identity for the first time and the outside world will at least be spared the nonsense of having to sign agreements with the ‘European Community and its Member States’. Ratification will see the eventual election of a President of the European Council who will undertake ‘at his or her level’ to ensure the external representation of the Union on issues concerning the common foreign and security policy, without prejudice to the powers of the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs’ (Article 1-21). The last sentence above refers to the fact that the President will preside over a European Council consisting of the Heads of State or Government of the Member States, the President of the European Commission and the newly established Union Minister for Foreign Affairs (referred to hereafter as the European Foreign Minister), who the Treaty stipulates will ‘take part’ in the work of the European Council.

Actions (login required)