The Issue of the Conformity of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe with the French Constitution. Decision by the Conseil constitutionnel on 19 November 2004

Rodolphe Laffranque
pp. 13-27

Summary

On the same day that the heads of government and heads of state from the member states of the European Union signed the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in Rome, i.e. on 29 October 2004, the President of the Republic of France, Jacques Chirac, according to Article 54 of the French Constitution, referred to the Conseil constitutionnel (hereinafter the Constitutional Council) with the enquiry as to whether the ratification of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe presumes the amendment of the French Constitution. The Constitutional Council entered a decision regarding the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe less than one month after receiving the enquiry from the President of the Republic, on 19 November 2004. In the decision, the court took the position that the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe is partially in conflict with the French Constitution and for this reason the Constitution must be amended before this Treaty can be ratified.

The article describes the positions of the Constitutional Council, which are divided into four, according to the structure of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe. It is constitutional supervision that is primarily affected by the supremacy principle of European Union law that is laid down clearly in the Treaty, followed by the European Union Charter on Fundamental Rights, provisions associated with European Union policies and operations, and finally the new competencies of the parliaments of the member states within the framework of the European Union. The first part of the article actually mainly deals with the procedures for the constitutional supervision of foreign treaties as laid down in the French Constitution, in order to clarify the background system for the constitutional supervision of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe.