The European constitution's prospects

Abstract

I would like to begin my paper by making two apparently contradictory statements. The first is that the Lisbon Treaty clearly reverses the trend reflected in the Rome Treaty of 2004 and resolutely shelves any prospect of a European Constitution. Indeed, in line with both the German Presidency's report dated June 20071 and the conclusions reached by the European Council in Brussels shortly afterwards,2 the Treaty deliberately abandons the term constitution. This therefore marks a sharp U-turn after the Rome Treaty, since the latter had constructed all its institutional and presentational strategy around that term.