Discussions behind the people's backs

The text under discussion by the European Council has been kept secret and was drawn up by "sherpas" behind closed doors and without the knowledge of the European citizens and their parliamentary representatives.

A return to the intergovernmental method, both undemocratic and inefficient

The draft text which the European Council is discussing is not the "slimmed-down" treaty initially announced. It is in fact a mandate to be given to an Intergovernmental Conference to draw up a new treaty.

Therefore, the European people still have no say in the content of the new text. Furthermore, there is a return to the intergovernmental method which has paralysed the European construction process for several years. This method, already difficult with 15 EU Member States and increasingly so with 25, will be even more complicated with 27. By allowing the discussions to emphasise national antagonisms rather than the general interest of the European people, this IGC method can only exacerbate nationalistic sentiment and lead to minimalist compromises. Instead of this, we call for Europe-wide election at the earliest occasion of a Constituent Assembly with the mandate to elaborate a Constitution for the European Union.

A text drawn from the Constitution which further reinforces the existing neo-liberal and anti-social EU policies

Quite logically the heads of state reunited in Brussels, who were all in favour of the draft European Constitution rejected by the French and Dutch people, have drawn up a compromise similar to the one they adopted in 2004. In substance, the content of the mandate given to the IGC maintains the non-democratic institutional content of the Constitution and makes no change to the neo-liberal orientation of the EU policies.

The new treaty presents no positive advances to the democratic functioning of the EU. The European Central Bank remains independent of all political influence. As stipulated in the Constitution, the European Parliament continues to be a subordinate institution, the Commission retains its monopoly on acts initiatives, and the powers of its President are reinforced. This institutional system encourages blockage situations and renders common EU policy ineffective.

Neither does the text under discussion by the European Council make any changes to the content of the EU social and economic policies. It stipulates that the "current treaties remain in force", and notably all references to the necessary respect of free market laws. Consequently it does not provide for any positive harmonisation of social or fiscal dispositions across the EU.

Whilst human and social rights demand the EU-wide and world-wide implementation of rigorous policies to fight against the expansion of poverty and inequality which exist also within Europe, the EU is refused the necessary means in terms of justice and social policy to counter these problems.

As the imperialistic war-mongering logic gains ground across the world, the EU is once again denied any real possibilities as regards common foreign policy and is subject to the constraints of "military security" imposed by the imperialistic powers that be. The EU still has no power to intervene for the promotion of world peace.

__A loss of legitimacy, a denial of democracy __ The adoption of the substance of the European Constitution under a new name is a serious violation of democratic principles. The EU citizens who rejected it by referendum cannot accept this denial of democracy. Furthermore, the method proposed by the European Council is no more easily acceptable to the citizens of Spain who accepted the previous text by referendum. On the contrary, this attempt to push through the text by deceptive means can only exacerbate the crisis of legitimacy that the EU is currently suffering in the eyes of its citizens.

The Initiative for a European Constituent Assembly reiterates its demand that a new EU Constitution should introduce a reorganisation of powers along genuinely democratic lines and therefore that it should be drawn up by a Constituent Assembly.

First signatories :

Oskar LAFONTAINE, MP, Co-Chairman of Die Linke, Chairman of Die Linke group at the Bundestag

Jean-Luc MELENCHON, Chairman Pour la République Sociale (PRS), Socialist Senator, former government minister

Fabio AMATO, international representative for Rifondazione Comunista, Italy

Diether DEHM, spokesperson on European affairs for Die Linke Parliamentary group, Germany

François DELAPIERRE, General Secretary PRS, France

Michael EFLER, Regional representative for Mehr Demokratie, Germany

Vicent GARCES, spokesperson for Izquierda Socialista - PSOE, Spain

Raquel GARRIDO, Coordinator of the Initiative for a European Constituent Assembly, France

Riccardo PETRELLA, Professor of political economics, Chairman of international world-wide water committee, Belgium

Thomas WALLGREN, academic, SDP Finland

Henri WEHENKEL, Dei Lenk, Luxembourg

Erik WESSELIUS, national spokesperson for the referendum NO campaign, the Netherlands