Before the major EU enlargement, Member States and candidate countries met to draw up a first draft constitution, but what happened to it? Find out now.

History: The Convention on the Future of Europe

On 10 July 2003,  the Convention on the Future of Europe,

completed its work by presenting the Union  with a draft constitution.

The process, started in late 2001  at the Laeken summit,

was not, however, as successful  as it was hoped.

We look back at this key moment  when the idea was to strengthen the EU

Three MEPs then involved in the convention

When the time came to adopt the draft...

Incidentally, we didn't vote.  It was done by acclamation, by consensus.

There were seven members who didn't  want to vote with the others,

but very significantly they didn't leave  slamming the door behind them.

If they had, there would have been no  consensus, no draft constitution or treaty.

They stayed and said, 'We wish to point out  that we are not part of the consensus.'

So they admitted  that there was a consensus.

The convention is the most  original and innovative idea.

Traditionally the Intergovernmental  Conference is held behind closed doors

and it is attended by politicians,  the elected representatives of the citizens.

because for the first time the West  and the East met at that convention.

We had to fight a little bit to be equal,

because there was no seat  in the presidency

for somebody from  the then candidate countries.

We have to remember that  even Turkey was participating

So then we were able to get one seat  in the presidency, so we were more equal.

for example on whether the European  Council of Heads of State and Government

Giscard d'Estaing pushed this idea through  against the majority in the convention.

The European Council becoming  an institution led to a heated debate.

The Parliament insisted on the fact that  the President of the European Commission

should be elected by the citizens  through the election of the Parliament.

Once completed, the draft constitution was  submitted for Member States' alterations

before being signed with great ceremony  in Rome on 29 October 2004.

The governments immediately rejected   what they didn't like,

for example a better  organisation of the Council of Ministers.

a European Minister in each country,  who's in charge of legislation,

not 16 councils that only look after  their own dossiers.

This would have been a great innovation 

and would have made Europe  more comprehensible for the citizens.

The governments didn't want that  and rejected it. 

had two major faults  which needed to be corrected.

One was the composition  of the European Commission.

One Commissioner per country  is absurd and anti-community.

The second error was  to keep the requirement

to ratify the treaty  and even for certain important decisions.

With 28 members we'll never be  unanimous about anything.

In 2005 the ratification  of the constitutional treaty

was rejected by referendum  on 29 May in France

We know that it was very difficult  for the people

to deal with the entirety of the treaty,

to understand  such a huge amount of material.

either those who said no  or even those who said yes to the treaty.

And the treaty was always considered  in the context of national politics.

so people voted against things  which were not in the treaty at all.

The big financial crisis of the last few years

has shown us how difficult it is for the EU  to overcome such an external shock.

The time has come to think about  the next stage of the European Union.

Apart from a monetary union, we also need  an economic and financial union.

I would say we need again a European  platform to discuss this together,

and there's hardly an alternative  to a new convention.

The Lisbon Treaty explicitly states  that it will again be referred to

for any substantial modification  to the European institutional order.