Talk:TITLE I - DEFINITION AND OBJECTIVES OF THE UNION

From Wikitution

This commentary taken from Daily dose of EU constitution which is all (c) by Steeph under a cc-by-sa 2.0 license

Table of contents

1 Article I-1

2 Article I-2

3 I-3 The Union's objectives

4 Article I-3: The Union's objectives

5 Article I-4

6 Article I-5: Relations between the Union and the Member States

7 Article I-6: Union law

8 Article I-7

9 Article I-8: The symbols of the Union

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Article I-1

"1. Reflecting the will of the citizens and States of Europe to build a common future...."

That's quite an assumption. Nobody ever verified if the majority of the people in the states that now form the EU really share this vision.

I do however :-)

"2. The Union shall be open to all European States..."

Hmmm, is there a definition of "European States"? Is Turkey one? Is Russia one? Lebanon?

And why stop with Europe?

People as a souverein is a legal fiction which is *very* important. The alternative would be granted by god, by the light, by tradition whatever.

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Article I-2

"The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimenation, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail."

That's very vague. "...respect for..." and "...prevail". Although the "values" (like democracy) are good, the whole formulation is not telling me anything.

And what does "...the rights of persons belonging to minorities" mean? Do they have different rights? Are we not all equal under the law?

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I-3 The Union's objectives

"1. The Union's aim is to promote peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples." I like the peace part. But the word "promote" is too soft.

"2. The Union shall offer its citizens an area of freedom, security and justice without internal frontiers, and an internal market where competition is free and undistorted."

Two main objections on this one:

It combines two distinct sort of items. Freedom/security and justice are understandable in a constitution. "Internal market" shouldn't have a place in a constitution.
It promotes a union based on free market principles. Even if you do think that the free market principle is good (which I don't) it still shouldn't be in a constitution. Free market is now a economic principle that some people see as being the best solution at this moment. But this can (and probably will) change. So it's not very clever to block any future development on economical theories with this statement.

A good thing about this article is the fact that they give a reason for the existence of the Union. In most countries the constitution never explains why a country/state is there at all. It's like that the existence of a state is self explaining. But it's not (in my opinion).

Another good thing is the fact that religion is not mentioned at all. This both religious and irreligious citizens equal rights which is currently not the case in some EU countries: Some regilions are being valued over the others for historical reasons and religious citizens are being privileged over the non-religious. It also eliminates the future possibility of sliding into fundamentalism.

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Article I-3: The Union's objectives

the fundamental question is: do states have objectives. This is about policy objectives which do not belong into a constitution.

"3. The Union shall work for the sustainable development of Europe based on balanced economic growth and price stability, a highly competitive social market economy, aiming at full employment and social progress, and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment. It shall promote scientific and technological advance.

It shall combat social exclusion and discrimination, and shall promote social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child.

It shall promote economic, social and territorial cohesion, and solidarity among Member States.

It shall respect its rich cultural and linguistic diversity, and shall ensure that Europe's cultural heritage is safeguarded and enhanced."

Apart from the fact that I think something like this shouldn't be in a constitution (last time I'll say this), I like the emphasis on "sustainable", "social", "solidarity" and "environment". But as with other parts in this constitution, it lacks a definition of these terms. But overall this is worthy as an objective for the Union.

"4. In its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests. It shall contribute to peace, security, the sustainable development of the Earth, solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, free and fair trade, eradictation of poverty and the protection of human rights,......"

So not only do we have these objectives for ourselves, we also want to apply them to the rest of the world. You can call it arrogant, but you can also call it feeling responsible. I think this is a good thing.

"the sustainable development of the Earth" What does that mean? Develop the Earth or the people on it? Is this about preserving nature, destroying nature or spread civilization? How about just "sustaining of the Earth"?

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Article I-4

"highly competitive social market economy" is a phraseology directly borrowed from neoliberal economic ideology (see http://members.fortunecity.es/lamb/sergiocastro.html)

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Article I-5: Relations between the Union and the Member States

" 1. The Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Constitution as well as their national identities, inherent in their fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local self- government. It shall respect their essential State functions, including ensuring the territorial integrity of the State, maintaining law and order and safeguarding national security. "

First of all I don't think the word "equality" will really mean that all countries within the EU are equal. But it will be interesting to see how this article can be used in the future by small countries.

But what puzzles me most is that they talk about respect for "..their fundamental structures, political and constitutional...". This seems in contrast with the fact that much of the EU is nowadays overruling local laws and rules. So the term "...self-government..." seems to be a contradiction with the actual situation.

And this will be cast in stone with the next article:

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Article I-6: Union law

" The Constitution and law adopted by the institutions of the Union in exercising competences conferred on it shall have primacy over the law of the Member States. "

So my final conclusion is that you can say goodbye to any illusion your country still having any freedom in doing what it likes. Its Europe who's calling the shots.

Not a good thing. Another reason to vote NO.

"in exercising competences conferred on it" Then let's confer these compentences constitutionally. If the constitution says they can do things that are not defined/limited in the constitution then the constitution had a gaping hole. The same hole that made Hitler from a democrate into a dictator could make "institutions of the Union" into self protecting groups of corrupt politicians. Self protecting BY LAW.

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