The European public is well-disposed towards the project of negotiating a constitutional treaty for the EU, according to the latest opinion poll on the subject, but ill-informed about the details and the process involved.
Most citizens, in Ireland and elsewhere in the EU, have not heard of the valuable work on preparing a draft treaty by the Convention on the Future of Europe, which involved delegates from member-states, national parliaments and the European Parliament. Now that the treaty is in the final stages of negotiation it deserves a lot more political and media attention.
The contribution to that debate made in this and other European newspapers today by the president and vice-presidents of the Convention is welcome as a means of engaging that attention. They make the central point that the EU is a union of states and peoples. The political compromises necessary to make it work have to reconcile "strictly national interests and the rules necessary to operate together at a European level". This involves reconciling two contradictory notions of equality - of states and of citizens. Because of the great range of populations between the member-states it is difficult indeed to find such a compromise between large and small ones.
These authors defend the solution agreed by the Convention - that there should be a double majority, when weighting voting, defined as "a majority of member-states, representing at least three-fifths of the population". They defend it on the grounds of simplicity and comprehensibility, which they believe will add to the legitimacy of decisions. Their article traces these principles clearly through the EU's representative structures. It repays close attention in the light of their overall conclusion - that the voice of democracy will be heard more and more vociferously in this process "to the point where, in time, power in the European Union, in matters that concern the Union exclusively, will pass to the citizens of Europe themselves".
This conclusion presages the gradual emergence of a trans-European political system, in addition to and not substituting for, those of the member-states. If that is so it will be necessary to create new democratic procedures to link up these various levels. The European Parliament becomes more important in this process. But so do the links between it and national parliaments, as well as with the Commission and the Council of Ministers. There will be more and more need, too, for public and media engagement as these political links are forged. It is the principal task of a constitutional treaty to make them comprehensible and accessible.
The Italian EU presidency has the difficult task of steering these negotiations to a conclusion by next month. The most troublesome issue they face is to convince Poland and Spain to accept a compromise on voting weights which preserves the spirit of what the Convention agreed. If the Italians do not succeed, that task will be added to the Irish EU presidency next year.