Original scientific paper
Croatian membership in the EU and constitutional options of European future
Robert Podolnjak
Abstract
The failure of the proposed European constitution and interruption of the process of its ratification have made doubtful the constitutionalisation of the EU in one complete document, and at the same time, the institutional adaptation of European institutions to a much larger number of Member States has failed.
As further enlargement of the EU is not probable until the question of the ratification of the Constitution is settled, the Republic of Croatia is facing serious difficulties and the possibility of 'freezing' its admission to the Union.
In the article several options of the constitutional future of the EU are analyzed, and assessed from the Croatian standpoint. The most important options discussed are: the possible continuation of the ratification of the actual constitutional text, new negotiations on the constitutional document, the option of creating a 'federal constitutional nucleus', building the Union without a constitution (status quo option), amendments to the Treaty of Nice, and finally the possible ratification of the 'constitutional nucleus', namely the first part of the constitutional treaty. The author considers also the recently proposed option of ratification of some treaty amendments in the form of accession treaty with Croatia as a pragmatic option of needed and minimal institutional adaptation of the EU. This option is 'seducing' from the standpoint of Croatian interests and therefore acceptable. However, from the standpoint of the constitutionalisation of the European legal order the most preferable option would be the ratification of the first part of the constitutional treaty.
Keywords
European Union; European Constitution; Croatia; enlargement of the EU
Hrčak ID:
5056
URI
Publication date:
20.10.2006.
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