ABSTRACT
The EU is in the midst of a constitution-making process, namely in a process of specifying the rights and obligations of the citizens of the Union. There are long traditions of rights entrenchment to build on and there are well-developed systems with legal personalities and adjudicatory machinery. The initiative taken to incorporate a Charter of Fundamental Rights into the new Treaty of the EU indicates that a new order is underway. At the December 2000 Summit in Nice the Charter was solemnly proclaimed. The eventual incorporation into the Treaties has been postponed until 2004. The Charter is a step in the process of constitutionalizing the EU. It is a constitution-making vehicle (Eriksen et al. 2003). This process of constitutionalization is no doubt driven forward by the particular developments within the EU pertaining to closer integration, and given impetus by the particularly vexing challenge of enlargement. The development interacts with and reinforces the European Court of Justice’s own embrace of constitutional principles and practices from the constitutional arrangements of the Member States. This process was taken a firm step forward by establishing the Convention on the Future of Europe (2002), which deemed itself a constitutional convention. It was originally initiated by Declaration 23 annexed to the Nice Treaty and put into motion by the Laeken Declaration (2001). A proposal for a Constitutional Treaty was submitted to the Council on 20 June 2003, in which the Charter of Fundamental Rights is incorporated as Part Two.
