The Political Rationale of the EU Constitutional Treaty: Hegemonic Consideration for the Core Member States

Abstract

The constitutional draft of the EU represents remarkable progress compared with the current Treaty of Nice. From a political perspective, the proposed Constitutional Treaty has the attributes more of an international treaty than a constitution, and reflects rather incomplete constitutionalism. The EU constitution is regarded as a carefully contrived compromise between the supranational federalist and intergovernmentalist positions. The proposed EU Constitution has grown out of constitutional politics strategically constructed by the core Member States, whose national governments have driven the process of EU constitution-making. We argue here that it is the major Member State-led constitutional politics underlying hegemonic intergovernmental governance that will continue to prevail, and that the concept of EU constitutional federalism seems, at present, to be a rather far off goal.