Introduction: Overview of the Constitutional Treaty and Main Elements of the Treaty

Abstract

The European Union (EU) has gone through a number of treaty reforms in recent years. The EU itself was formed by the Maastricht Treaty in 1992. It combined the pre-existing European Communities (EC) in reformed versions, including plans for Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), with two new pillars: Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP); and Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) cooperation. From the beginning of 2002 a Convention on the Future of Europe worked to draft a new treaty. It was finalised in July 2003. An Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) then met from October 2003 until June 2004, when the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, referred to as the Constitutional Treaty, was agreed upon. Although a majority of the Member States actually ratified the Treaty, a meeting of the European Council in June 2007 decided to negotiate an alternative treaty, a Reform Treaty, thus abandoning the Constitutional Treaty. Keywords: Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP); Constitutional Treaty; Economic and Monetary Union (EMU); European Communities (EC); European Union (EU); Intergovernmental Conference (IGC); Justice and Home Affairs (JHA); Reform Treaty