Two new books on the Convention
By Lisbeth Kirk
Finding solutions to the current deadlock over the European Constitution may not be easy, but two new books aim to show how the treaty text came into being - shedding some light on the path that led to last month's breakdown in the talks.
The two books provide a perfect foil for each other and read in tandem give a nice overview of both the politics and the policies behind the making of the historic EU Constitution.
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"The Accidental Constitution" written by former Brussels bureau chief of the Financial Times Peter Norman provides the more sober and technical account of the negotiations on the 465-article text.
This 400-page book, published by EuroComment, lines up the events in chronological order; from the set up of the Convention at the Laeken summit in December 2002 to the presentation of the draft Constitution by chairman Válery Giscard d’Estaing 16 months later on 13 June 2003.
While never managing to bring readers behind the scenes of the Convention, Mr Norman does succeed in presenting a view of the arguments and lines of thought that were pushed back and forth amongst the 105 members of the conventionels, as Mr Giscard took to calling them.
Indeed, this is the book, where dates, drafts, personalities, articles and quotes can be looked up.
However, some sentences such as "Based on existing article 23 of the TEU, draft article 9 included rules for abstention, including qualified abstention, which would exempt a country from applying a CFSP decision, although it would have to accept the decision would commit the Union and undertake not to obstruct it" make it a book only for readers with a real interest in the subject.
Hilton dinners
Mr Norman is at his best when offering rare glimpses of what went on behind the open Convention scene – in the places where the public had no access.
Readers learn about the Hilton dinners that were organised by Spanish MEP and powerful Convention member Inigo Méndez de Vigo, with the financial support of Pat Cox, the European Parliament president.
Representing the European Parliament in the Presidium, the 13-member steering group of the Convention, Mr de Vigo invited a group of "movers and shakers" to dine on the 26th floor of the Brussels Hilton after the first day of each two day plenary session to test ideas on a totally informal basis.
Regulars at these dinners included Peter Hain (UK government representative), Danuta Hübner (Polish government representative) and European Commissioners Michel Barnier and Antonio Vitorino.
"The Accidental Constitution" also provides useful insights on how the Youth Convention - a mirror image but younger version of the Convention - was a great disappointment to Mr Giscard.
Giscard's secret weapon
Consensus was "Giscard’s secret weapon and he made sure it stayed under his control until the Convention’s final day", concludes Peter Norman.
When presenting the final draft Constitution on 13 June 2003, Mr Giscard said support of the Constitution had been "virtually unanimous".
In fact no vote was ever taken over the draft European Constitution. Nor were the some 5,000 amendments from the Convention members ever voted on.
"It appeared to strike genius", writes Peter Norman.
The all-powerful eminence grise
A special mention is also given to Sir John Kerr, a British diplomat famed for hiding under the table to advise the then UK Prime Minister during complicated negotiations on the Maastricht Treaty.
Mr Giscard picked him as head of the Convention secretariat, where he became the Convention's 'eminence grise'.
He was highly involved in the important behind-the-scenes Presidium work that often took place in Mr Giscard's study in his house in Paris - well away from the Convention Secretariat office.
The institutional questions, which proved to be the hardest to solve, were "hard-wired" into the Constitution by the interventions of the large member states through chaotic procedures inside the Convention and "always tempered by the insights of Giscard and Sir John Kerr into what Germany, France and the UK would accept", reports Peter Norman.
Sir Kerr and two collaborators were also very busy in the early spring of 2003 when they worked out, together with Mr Giscard, the content of the first 15 treaty articles.
Presidium members were "flabbergasted and furious" when Mr Giscard briefed the press about the blueprint without presenting it to them first, reports Mr Norman.
One of those "furious" people was Gisela Stuart, member of the Presidium and author of a 60-page pamphlet on the wheeler-dealing behind the Constitution.
Much more passionate than Mr Norman's account, this polemic by the German-born British Labour MP - published by Fabian - gives an interesting slant on the talks.
Ms Stuart argues that a self-selected European political elite drew up the Constitution.
Layers upon layers
"Not once in the 16 months I spent on the Convention did representatives question whether deeper integration is what the people of Europe want", she writes.
Ms Stuart also credits Mr Kerr with having huge sway over what went into the Constitution.
"The process in the Convention was itself riddled with imperfections and moulded by a largely unaccountable political elite, set on a particular outcome from the very start", she argues.
"Just precisely who drafted the skeleton, and when, is still unclear to me, but I gather much of the work was done by Válery Giscard d’Estaing and Sir Kerr over the summer".
Back to the drawing board
At an EU summit in December 2001 in Laeken, outside Brussels, member states agreed to set up the Convention.
Europe needed to bring its citizens, and primarily the young, closer to the European design and the European institutions, they concluded.
However Ms Stuart concludes, "If this Constitution does not have the support of the people of Europe and on reflection is not deemed to signpost a structure of Europe of the twenty-first century, then we simply have to go back to the drawing board".
In the last sentence of her book, she calls for a structure that is "less designed to meet the inclinations and ambitions of its bureaucrats and politicians".
A place in the history books?
Mr Giscard wanted to secure his place in the history as the father of Europe's written Constitution.
"On one notable occasion he told us in the Presidium that "this is what you have to do if you want the people to build statues of you on a horseback back in the villages you all come from"", recalls the British MP.
It remains to be seen if Mr Giscard succeeds in having a place in the history books – as talks on the text broke down at the end of last year.
However, some 90% of the former French President's text survived member state negotiations which began in October 2003 - EU leaders have also set themselves the deadline of reaching agreement on the Constitution "as soon as possible" for it to be known to the European citizens before the June 2004 elections.
There is still half a year to go.