ABSTRACT
The analyses in the two preceding chapters have shown: There exist deepgoing discrepancies between elites and citizens and between the different member states about the aims and visions concerning the EU; the real development of European integration is not inspired in the fi rst instance by the positive values-democracy and peace-connected with the intellectual “dream of Europe” but more with those of Europe as a new economic and political power. We shall not end this study after having elaborated these contradictions but will try to deduce, in this fi nal chapter, some practical-political conclusions about the reform and future institutional development of the EU. In our view, this is a very important task which is usually not recognized. It is certainly a task different from the analysis of the coming into existence and the workings of an institution. However, both approaches-the empirical-explanatory and the normative-constructivist-need each other. It is one of the weaknesses of the literature on European integration that such integrative analyses are missing. The fi rst task, here, is to take up the fundamental issue of the character of the European Union. A clarifi cation of this question is of fundamental importance for the debate about its further development. In order to fi nd an answer to this question, we discuss fi rst the rationales behind a constitution for the EU, the reason for its rejection by the French and Dutch people, but the attitudes of all EU citizens toward the idea of a constitution. Then, it is proposed to see the EU as a “community of law.” Such an understanding, it is argued, makes possible a solution for most shortcomings of the present system of the EU, namely, its weak social orientation and its democratic defi cit. It is shown that many EU member states have included strong social rights in their constitutions.
