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The EU Constitutional Treaty

EU Constitution Treaty
On Friday 18 June, leaders of the EU’s Member States agreed a Constitutional Treaty for the EU. This Treaty reforms the EU to make its institutions more transparent, more accountable, more efficient and better able to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It also spells out that the EU is a union of nation states, and has only those powers that Governments have chosen to confer upon it.

This Treaty will not fundamentally alter the nature of the relationship between the EU and the Member States. The existing EU treaties effectively already make up a constitutional structure, but they are overly complex and unclear. We have therefore supported restructuring and consolidating them.

The Member States of the European Union worked on this new Treaty for the EU during the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) which started in October 2003. The draft Constitutional Treaty drawn up by the Convention on the Future of Europe was taken as the starting point for negotiations. The UK, represented by the Foreign Secretary and the Prime Minister, participated fully in the series of meetings to negotiate the new Treaty. A Standing Committee was set up in Parliament to hold Ministers to account and there have been a number of parliamentary debates as part of this process.

The Government will now enable the people to have their say by holding a referendum on the Constitutional Treaty for the EU before ratifying it. This decision was made in response to the calls for a referendum from the British people and because the Government believes it is time to dispel the many myths about Europe.

The provisional text of the Constitutional Treaty is now available:

PDF CIG 86/04 - Provisional consolidated version of the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe  (PDF, 480KB)

PDF CIG 86/04 ADD1 - Provisional consolidated version of the Protocols to be annexed to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference  (PDF, 1.10 MB)

PDF CIG 86/04 ADD2 - Provisional consolidated version of the Declarations to be annexed to the Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference  (PDF, 147KB)


This is an external link IGC Documents

House of Commons statement, 21 June 2004 - Prime Minister's press conference

This is an external link Prime Minister's press conference (18/06/04)


PDF Ten point summary of the EU Constitutional Treaty  (PDF, 7KB)


Futurum is an inter-institutional site in 11 languages to inform about the Constitution and offers a platform for contributions and discussions with European citizens.

Futurum

Futurum: Public Forums
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** The Convention on the Future of Europe
** Future of Europe - Parliamentary Debates
** Forum on the Draft EU Constitutional Treaty
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