Continuing the European Constitutional Debate

The present volume contains German and Czech legal contributions to the EU constitutional debate. The contributions are based on talks given at a conference, which was held in Oberwiesenthal from 16 to 18 October 2006. The conference took place at a time of uncertainty about the fate of the Constitutional Treaty signed on 29 October 2004. Since then, following a period of reflection about the future of the Constitutional Treaty which was deemed necessary in the aftermath of the negative referenda in France and the Netherlands, the European Council has given the green light for drawing up a new treaty, the so-called Reform Treaty, at its summit on 21/22 June 2007. In July 2007, the Presidency of the Council then convened an Intergovernmental Conference for the purpose of negotiating and adopting the new treaty before the end of 2007. Unlike the Constitutional Treaty, the new treaty - the Treaty of Lisbon, signed on 13 December 2007 - will not repeal the earlier treaties but is conceived as a traditional amending treaty. Even though the endeavours to revitalise the Constitutional Treaty of 2004 were abandoned, the European Council has also decided to incorporate into the new treaty most of the amendments envisaged by the Constitutional Treaty. Thus, the academic debate about the Constitutional Treaty retains its significance and topicality for the current debate about the Treaty of Lisbon, to which the editors and authors would like to contribute with the present volume.