Treaty of Nice (2001)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Treaty of Nice is a treaty adopted in Nice by the European Council to amend the two founding treaties of the European Union:
- the Treaty on European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, which introduced the euro and the three-pillar structure of the EU;
- the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community.
Genesis
- It was agreed by the Heads of State or Government at the Nice European Council on 11 December 2000
- It was signed 26 February 2001
- It came into force on 1 February 2003.
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[edit] Provisions of the Treaty
The primary purpose of the Treaty of Nice was to reform the institutional structure to withstand the Enlargement of the European Union, a task which was supposed to have been carried out at the Amsterdam Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC), but the Treaty of Amsterdam failed to address most of the issues.
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The Treaty adopted by the Nice European Council was attacked by many. Germany had demanded that its greater population be reflected in a higher vote weighting in the Council; this was opposed by France, who insisted that the symbolic parity between France and Germany be maintained. One proposal made by many, which would have greatly simplified the current system, was to introduce a double majority of both member states and population, to replace the current Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) system. This was also rejected by France for similar reasons. A compromise was reached, which provided for a double majority of Member States and votes cast, and in which a Member State could optionally request verification that the countries voting in favour represented a sufficient proportion of the Union's population.
The Treaty provided for an increase after enlargement of the number of seats in the European Parliament to 732, which exceeded the cap established by the Treaty of Amsterdam.
The question of a reduction in the size of the European Commission after enlargement was resolved by a fudge — the Treaty providing that once the number of Member States reached 27, the number of Commissioners appointed in the subsequent Commission would be reduced by the Council to below 27, but without actually specifying the target of that reduction. As a transitional measure it specified that after 1 January 2005, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain would each give up their second Commissioner.
The Treaty provided for the creation of subsidiary courts below the European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance to deal with special areas of law such as patents.
The Nice Treaty provides for new rules on closer co-operation, the rules introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam being viewed as unworkable, and hence these rules have not yet been used.
In response to the failed sanctions against Austria following a coalition including Jörg Haider's party having come to power, and fears about possible future threats to the stability of the new member states to be admitted in enlargement, the Treaty of Nice for the first time adopted formal rules for the application of sanctions against a Member State.
The Treaty also contained provisions to deal with the financial consequences of the expiry of the ECSC treaty (Treaty of Paris (1951)).
It was widely accepted that the Treaty of Nice has failed to deal with the basic question of wide-ranging institutional reform, the European Union institutions being widely viewed as overly complicated, and hence the establishment of the European Convention, leading to a new IGC in 2004, was agreed at Nice.
The Commission and the European Parliament were disappointed that the Nice IGC did not adopt many of their proposals for reform of the institutional structure or introduction of new Community powers, such as the appointment of a European Public Prosecutor. The European Parliament threatened to pass a resolution against the Treaty; although it has no formal power of veto, the Italian Parliament threatened that it would not ratify without the European Parliament's support. However, in the end this did not come to pass and the European Parliament approved the Treaty.
Many argue that the pillar structure, which was maintained by the Treaty, is overly complicated, that the separate Treaties should be merged into one Treaty, and that the three (now two) separate legal personalities of the Communities should be merged, and that the European Community and the European Union should be merged with the European Union being endowed with legal personality. The German regions were also demanding a clearer separation of the powers of the Union from the Member States.
Nor did the Treaty of Nice deal with the question of the incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Treaty; that was also left for the 2004 IGC after the opposition of the United Kingdom.
- ^ The relative weight is a measure of how many Council votes a country has related to its population. In this instance, German weight is taken to be 1.00 and all others refer to it.
[edit] Ratification process
Under the current rules for the amendment of the Treaties, the Treaties can only be amended by a new Treaty, which must be ratified by each of the Member States to enter into force.
In all the EU member states the Treaty of Nice was ratified by parliamentary procedure, except in Ireland, where the Irish Supreme Court in an earlier judgment on the Single European Act had ruled that fundamental changes to European Treaties, which alter the Irish Constitution's recognition of sovereignty as being ultimately derived from the People, require an amendment to the Irish constitution. Ireland's constitution can only be amended by a referendum of the people.
To the surprise of Europe's political classes, the voters in Ireland rejected the Nice Treaty in June 2001. The turnout itself was low (34%), partly a result of the failure of the major Irish political parties to mount a strong campaign on the issue, presuming that the Irish electorate would pass the Treaty. (All previous such Treaties had been passed by big majorities.) However many Irish voters were critical of the Treaty contents, believing that it marginalised smaller states. Others questioned the impact of the Treaty on Irish neutrality. Other sections viewed the leadership of the Union as out of touch and arrogant, with the Treaty offering a perceived chance to 'shock' the European leadership into a greater willingness to listen to its critics. (A similar argument was made when Denmark initially voted down the Treaty of Maastricht.) In large measure, the Nice Treaty was lost because pro-treaty supporters simply never bothered to vote, while the 'Vote No' campaigns were effective in raising serious questions as to the value of the Treaty.
The Irish government, having obtained the Seville Declaration on Ireland's policy of military neutrality from the European Council, decided to have another referendum on the Treaty of Nice on Saturday, 19 October 2002. Two significant qualifications were included in the second proposed amendment, one requiring the consent of the Dáil for "enhanced cooperation" under the treaty, and another preventing Ireland from joining any EU common defense policy. A 'Yes' vote was urged by a massive campaign by the main parties and – for the first time in European referenda in Ireland – by civil society and the social partners, including campaigning through canvassing and all forms of media by respected pro-European figures like then EP president Pat Cox, former Czech president Václav Havel, former President of Ireland Patrick Hillery and former Taoiseach (prime minister) Dr. Garret Fitzgerald. Prominent civil society campaigns on the Yes side included Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Labour Party, the Progressive Democrats, the Irish Alliance for Europe led by Professor Brigid Laffan and Adrian Langan, and Ireland for Europe led by Ciarán Toland. On the No Side, the principal campaigns were those of the Green Party, Sinn Féin, Anthony Coughlan's National Platform, Justin Barrett's No to Nice campaign, and Roger Cole's Peace and Neutrality Alliance. The result was a 60% "Yes" vote on near double the turn-out of the previous referendum. Every constitutency in Ireland voted Yes by a significant margin.
By then all other EU member states had ratified the Treaty. Ratification by all parties was required by the end of the year, or else the Treaty would have expired.
[edit] Views of the Treaty
Proponents of the Treaty claim it is a utilitarian adjustment to cumbersome EU governing mechanisms and a required streamlining of decision-making processes, necessary to facilitate enlargement of the EU into Central Europe. They claim that consequently is vitally important for the integration and future progress of these former communist countries. Many who are in favour of greater scope and power of the EU project, feel that it does not go far enough in fact, and that it may in any case be superseded by future treaties and agreements (such as a possible EU constitution and federal state). Proponents differ in the extent to which enlargement may proceed without it, some claiming the very future of the Union's growth – if not existence – to be at stake, while others saying that enlargement can legally proceed – albeit at a slower pace – without it.
Opponents of the Treaty claim that it is a "technocratic" rather than "democratic" treaty, which further diminishes the sovereignty of national/local parliaments, and further concentrating power into centralised and unaccountable bureaucracy - "deepening but not widening" political power. They also claim that five applicants may join at once under the current system, and that all others may negotiate on an individual basis - which they believe will be advantageous to the applicants. It is also claimed that the Nice Treaty will create a two-class and two-tier EU, specifically to enable an "inner-club" of powerful states (e.g. France and Germany) to effectively co-opt EU institutions for their own purposes. Opponents point out that leading pro-treaty politicians have admitted, that were referenda to be held in countries other than Ireland, it would probably be defeated there as well.
[edit] Timeline
Timeline of the Treaties and EU Constitution
| European Union - treaties, structure, history | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 | 1958 | 1967 | 1993 | 1999 | 2003 | ? |
| EC - European Community... | E U R O P E A N U N I O N ( E U ) | |||||
| European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) | ||||||
| European Economic Community (EEC) |
European Community (EC) | |||||
| ...European Communities: ECSC, EEC (EC, 1993), Euratom | Justice & Home Affairs |
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| Police & Judicial Co-operation in Criminal matters (PJCC) |
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| Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) | ||||||
| Euratom (European Atomic Energy Community) | ||||||
| Treaty of Paris |
Treaties of Rome |
Merger Treaty |
Treaty of Maastricht |
Treaty of Amsterdam |
Treaty of Nice |
European Constitution |
| "THREE PILLARS" - European Communities (EC, Euratom), Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Police and Judicial Co-operation in Criminal matters (PJCC) | ||||||
[edit] External links
- Official multilingual portal of the Treaty of Nice (European Commission)
- Summary of the Treaty
- Consolidated version of the Treaties
- Landmark EU treaty comes into effect - BBC News article dated February 1, 2003
- History of the European Union - Treaty of Nice
- Analysis of the voting weighs before and after, with 3D visualisation
- Book about the Treaty of Nice (also as PDF)
- Treaty of Nice European NAvigator
| Preceded by Amsterdam Treaty (1997) |
EU treaties | Succeeded by European Constitution (proposed) |
