What does the EU Constitution provide?

The FCO, British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, has a special page on the EU Constitution which summarizes the EU Constitution as follows:



What the Constitution does - a ten point summary:



● Consolidates existing Treaties into a single text

● Creates a President of the European Council and a Union Minister for Foreign Affairs

●Introduces new system of double majority voting from November 2009: decisions by QMV [Qualified Majority Voting] will need support of 55% of countries, representing 65% of EU population

● Extends Qualified Majority Voting to 15 areas

● Makes it explicit that Member States can leave the EU if they wish

● Includes a new role for national Parliaments to opine on Commission proposals in draft (a 'subsidiarity mechanism')

● Makes Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) the norm for JHA [Justice & Home Affairs] issues. But includes an emergency brake mechanism for criminal procedural law

● Carries over UK Protocol so UK can opt-in where it wants to for immigration, asylum and civil justice issues

● Incorporates the Charter of Fundamental Rights

● Otherwise, existing Treaties are largely carried over unchanged.



The Constitution covers the following specific matters, which are reviewed at the FCO site:



Animal welfare

The Budget

The Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights

The Commission

Common Foreign and Security Policy

Competition

Development

Economic and Monetary Union

Economic governance

Energy

European External Action Service

European Parliament

European Security and Defence Policy

Fisheries

Internal market

Justice and Home Affairs

President of the European Council

The Presidency system

Public health

Qualified Majority Voting (QMV)

Regions and devolution

Research and Technological Development and Space

Social security

Social policy

Subsidiarity and national parliaments

Sustainable development and environmental protection

Tax

Trade

Treaty structure and Union competence

Union Minister for Foreign Affairs

The voting system