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EU adopts constitution Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-20-eu-constitution_x.htmhttp://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2004-06-20-eu-constitution_x.htm
EU adopts constitution, faces substantial hurdles
By Noelle Knox, USA TODAY
BRUSSELS After two years of drafting and bickering, European leaders have agreed on a new constitution for the European Union's 25 countries and 450 million people. But the historic document is going to be a hard sell for a growing number of Europeans who are disillusioned with the EU.
Before the constitution can be ratified, it faces referendums in at least seven countries including the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Denmark. A "no" vote in any one of them will kill it.
A YouGov poll for The Sunday Times showed that British voters would reject the new constitution 49% to 23%.
"The chances are very low" that it will pass all the referendums, says Aurore Wanlin, a research fellow at the Center for European Reform in London. If that happens, "that will be the end of the united Europe," she says, referring to the countries committed to the union including Germany and France and those that are less committed, including Britain, which refused to adopt the euro currency. Wanlin suggests that gap could widen.
Created in 1951 as the European Coal and Steel Community, the EU has expanded from a trading bloc of a half-dozen countries into a powerful alliance. The EU, which added 10 new countries on May 1, now stretches from Sweden and Finland in the north to Spain and Greece in the south.
Compared by its authors to the U.S. Constitution, the European document offers rights including freedom of religion, speech, shelter and education. It also promises to make the EU a more formidable U.S. ally or adversary on issues ranging from terrorism to trade. The constitution calls for:
A more powerful council president and a foreign minister as a kind of counterpart to the U.S. Secretary of State.
A public prosecutor similar to, but less powerful than, the U.S. attorney general.
The approval of at least 15 member countries 65% of the population for passage of laws.
Although Britain won the right for each country to control its own taxes and social policy, Europeans worry the EU is taking too much of their national sovereignty. Turnout for this month's parliamentary elections was 45% of eligible voters, the lowest turnout on record.
That put pressure on the leaders to show they could agree on the constitution at the summit here last week. But they still couldn't decide who would be the new president of the EU commission when Italy's Romano Prodi finishes his five-year term in October.
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