What are the Limits of European Expansion? The Secession Clause and why it Matters

Abstract

During the last days of the year 2003 twenty-five European countries failed to come to terms with all demands enclosed within the project of a Constitution for Europe. Everyone went home. Now nothing is agreed upon before all is agreed upon, and hopes are high that the Irish Presidency will manage to bring about a satisfactory covenant sometime in the Spring. In the meantime, a secession clause has crept into the agenda for Europe... quietly. Article 59 of the upcoming Constitution allows any Member State, and thus all Member States, to leave the Treaty at will and in the process, entitles them to a bilateral agreement that clarifies the terms of such a procedure. The Treaties of Amsterdam and Nice had addressed the issue of suspension of a Member State's voting rights but halted at the threshold of secession. Their unwillingness to go further had made it very clear to Member States that agreement and compromise was the only answer allowed when European issues were at stake. After the Constitution a Member State may distance itself not only from single issues under discussion but from European affairs altogether. It may later repent and appeal to article 57 to re-join the Union. Frontiers are thus rendered temporary. All European frontiers, old and new are rendered temporary. The external border is no longer fated to expand only, it may retreat, and the old and forgotten internal borders may be resurrected.