The Union of European Federalists
taking note
that the French leader Sarkozy has proposed a mini-Treaty, to replace the European Constitution rejected by the referendum in France and the Netherlands, and that in some political quarters a “Treaty amending the Treaty of Nice” is discussed as a possible way out of the present institutional impasse;
believes
that the present difficult condition of the European Union requires the full scope of the European Constitution and not a reduced mini-Treaty, which would miss out many of the important and necessary reforms;
recognises
that the text of the European Constitution, and not that of the mini-Treaty, represents the broad public consensus on the future of Europe, as shown by the fact that it has already been approved by the majority of European citizens and states; moreover it has been approved by the majority of citizens taking part to the referenda (in Spain, France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg) because the votes were 26,662,958 of YES against 22,667,763 of NO; finally, recent opinion polls say that a majority of European citizens supports the project of a Constitution for Europe;
remembers
the extensive and detailed process that lay behind the negotiation of the Constitution and argues that negotiating a new mini-Treaty would be a difficult task and not an easy one as Mr Sarkozy appears to be believe;
maintains
that these difficulties can be overcome if the European Council, in agreement with the European Parliament:
charges a new Convention with the limited tasks: a) to amend the Constitutional Treaty, in order that the European citizens should express their point of view on a real Constitution of more or less 100 articles; and b) to adopt the democratic principle of the double majority of citizens and states for the ratification procedure;
submits the amended Constitution to the judgement of the European citizens, organising a consultative ballot on the same day of the 2009 European election. Europe will become closer to the citizens, if the citizens are allowed to vote for their Constitution.
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