Princess Ivy

With French rejection of the EU constitution, our beloved leader (please not a lot of sarcasm) has now said that we need time to reflect on the document, rather than rushing ahead with our own referendum. grrr, methinks hes afraid of getting another 'no' vote!

Alexa

Wow ! You mean he do not take his "I'm the one who maked the law in here ?"

(sorry, I never liked those from his family :biggrin

I don't know if that EU constitution is such a good idea. Each country has its particularities and national pride. And that stupid pride can do a lot of harm.

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Leto

A EU constitution could be a good idea, but not this one. Anyway, with the NO from us and Netherlands and the decision to abandon referendum by your dear Prime, current treaty is almost dead.

Winters_Sorrow

It depends on the content of any future constitution.
Ironically, the US might show the way to integrate seperate states into a coherent whole. Each of their states have quite a bit of self-determination in that they can decide on what tax level to set, what local laws to pass etc.

I must state that I am still not entirely satisfied with the concept of EU unification. I think it's all happening a bit too fast with no clear goal or even common interests at times.
The potential is there for rampant corruption (yes, you could probably say that this is what goes on in Washington & London already!!).
The longer I see how government 'works' - the more local devolvement I want, really

littlemissattitude

The thing I don't understand is how anyone could vote on a constitution that is so long. I recall reading somewhere that the French translation of it was upwards of 250 pages. That's way, way too long for a constitution, in my opinion. I was always under the impression that a constitution is supposed to be a general blueprint, not a detailed document. Now, it is true that the US constitution gets argued over all the time, but it has seemed to work fairly well most of the time.

Leto

French constitution is only 89 articles. This treaty was divided in 3 parts and 468 articles long. Far too detailled but worse dealt with things (as economy policy) that shouldn't be in on Constitution level but simply on regular legislative one.

Foxbat

The Constitution seems rather bulky - as if it has tried to please all of the people all of the time and has satisfied nobody.

Still, unpopular as this view may be with many, I am (on the whole) in support of closer European ties because, let's face it, there's less chance of us going to war with each other that way....and that can't be a bad thing.

littlemissattitude

The US Constitution is 7 articles plus the Amendments (and there are only 27 of those, one of which [21] just repealed another one [18]). Basically it just says that there will be three branches of government - Legislative, Executive, and Judicial - and what powers each will have and how the representatives, president and vice president, and judges will be selected, plus things like that legal actions (marriages, etc.) in one state have to be recognized in all states, how to amend the thing, who can make treaties, and how the constitution was to be ratified after it was first written. Simple. It only runs a few pages (not even ten, I don't think) in print.

Leto

Usually, constitutionnaly-wise (and law student-wise ) the shorter the better. IIRC, to be accepted, your constitution took a lot more than one vote. Am I wrong ?
From WW2 to current European situation was a long and uneasy process. And it'll take longer to bring more integration.

littlemissattitude

The US Constitution had to be ratified by conventions in 9 of the 13 states then in existence for it to go into force.