The European constitution saw light ten years ago. On June 18, 2004 it was previously approved by member-states summit. It never came into force foreboding future problems. Today the process of European integration is actually stymied; the numbers of Eurosceptics are growing. No matter that Serbia and some other Balkan states view the European Union as a messiah. It makes it expedient to have a look at what the authors of the constitution wanted and why their efforts were in vain.

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE), (commonly referred to as the European Constitution or as the Constitutional Treaty) was actually signed on 29 October 2004 by 53 senior political figures from the 25 member states of the European Union. It was an unratified international treaty in-tended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union. It would have replaced the existing European Union treaties with a single text, given legal force to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and expanded Qualified Majority Voting

into policy areas which had previously been decided by unanimity among member states. It took three years to prepare (as in the case of the 1950 constitution of India) the most voluminous document in the world. It included 450 items and clauses while the document was published in 20 EU languages. The document refused the principle of consensus and the right of separate members to veto decisions, the number of European Commission members was reduced and the half-year rotation for position of the Commission’s Chairman was re-scinded. The EU president and minister of Foreign Affairs were to receive special powers enabling them to conduct inde-pendent policy which was not based on consensus. (1)

Such fundamental changes required the support of people living in the member-states. That’s what made the consti-tution doomed. The rejection of the document by French and Dutch voters in May and June 2005 brought the ratification process to an end. The treaty was opposed by 55% of French and 62% of Dutch voters. (2) Following a period of reflection, the Treaty of Lisbon was created to replace the Constitutional Treaty. This contained many of the changes that were originally placed in the Constitutional Treaty but was formulated as amendments to the existing treaties. Signed on December 13,

2007, the Lisbon Treaty entered into force on December 1, 2009. Remembering those days Gunter Verheugen, former European Commissioner for Enlargement in 1999-2004, believes that the European Union failed because it tried to implement two large-scale projects at once – the deepened integration and the expansion of the organization itself. According to him, those days the French were right saying the process of integration evolvement was to precede enlargement. (3)

Back in 2008 the European Union was hit by financial crisis – it all boiled down to inefficiency of decision making process dooming the political and economic endeavors aimed at tackling hot issues. The lax consensus norms adopted in Lisbon hindered the efforts aimed at mobilization.

The weak points surfaced by the end of 2011 as the organization got split over tax harmonization issue. Back then the British government was fighting the new EU regulations to control taxes that would have a direct impact on the City. UK Prime Minister David Cameron said the meddling into insurance, banking and stock exchange was unacceptable. He referred to the Lisbon Treaty pointing out that it gave the member-states a right to tackle those issues on their own and Britain needed no discrimination amendments.

The British are not the only ones to dissent. Germany is complaining too. It has to shoulder the major burden of fighting the eurozone crisis. No wonder London believes that independence meets its interests. At the same time Berlin blocks the launching of radical financial recovery mechanisms till the EU central agencies establish genuine control over national budgets, banks and taxation systems. Hans Kundnani is the re-search director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, where he specializes in German foreign policy. In his book More Money, More Problems he writes that the more vigorously Germany defends its economic interests, the more problems it faces with its European partners. (4)

Ineffectiveness and excessive politicization of Brussels bureaucracy also create a destabilizing factor. They understand each other too well in the European Union, so they don’t need to vote and if they do they rarely count the results. According to Václav Klaus, former President of the Czech Republic, the author of When Tomorrow Starts (Kde začíná zítřek), it actually means that the majority votes automatically, conscientiously and politically correctly supporting almost each and every of the projects offered by the leadership of European Parliament ( the European Commission, the European Council). (5)

Ten years have passed since the time the constitution was prepared to be disapproved. Today it’s still hard to say the European Union is an effectively functioning institution.