Genesis and assessment of the grand institutional settlement of the European convention

Abstract

This article charts the genesis of the proposals adopted by the European Convention on the EU institutions on the assumption that a proper understanding of this evolution can help us in assessing their quality. The article first outlines the background against which these proposals were conceived. Then the various stages of the Convention’s debate are recounted. In conclusion it is submitted that the Convention’s proposals embody some important steps towards a more transparent, democratic and effective Union but definitely cannot considered exhaustive. Furthermore, while many of the specific proposals put forward by the Convention look likely to be discarded again by the member states, the fundamental principles inscribed in the draft Constitutional Treaty will put the institutional architecture on a fundamentally different basis.