ATTAC Against the Treaty

Bernard Cassen on the campaign for and against the European Union constitution.

The Yes campaign of the French Socialists made much of the supposedly democratic procedures under which the 'constitution' was elaborated. Their trump card was that the 105 members of the Convention on the Future of Europe [footnote omitted] would be hearing from the representatives of Civil Society-in this instance, some trade-union officials and leaders of citizens' associations. It was clear from the start that the recommendations of the Convention would not be binding on the ministers of the Twenty Five. Had they deliberately set out to create the impression of a consultative fig leaf, eu leaders could hardly have done better. The analogy with the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, as several American commentators have pointed out, was risible.

New Left Review May-June 2005