The debate over a European constitution is fully underway. (1) The issue will play an important role at the 2004 intergovernmental conference, especially if negotiations over a new model for the division of competencies between the Union and its constituent Member States is taken up at the Conference. The various points of inquiry — a Charter of Fundamental Rights, institutional reform, the division of competencies, financing, eastward expansion, finality — belong together and they beg for a solution that is fully conceptualized. With this in mind, the German Federal Government is justified in making sweeping, well thought out proposals. At the same time, the French government is equally correct to promote practical solutions while expressing a healthy suspicion of the formation of a federal state of Europe, which is the holiest of all possibilities for the Germans. Against this background, let me begin by saying a few things with respect to the legal nature of a possible constitution for the EU, before I move on to a presentation of more practical conclusions. II.

[1] In his speech at the Humboldt University in Berlin, 12 May 2000, Joschka Fischer described the expansion of “reinforced cooperation” as a necessary first stage to Europe's further development. He pointed out that, with the tool of closer cooperation, those states desiring to cooperate more closely than other member states of the European Union could make progress in many areas like environmental protection, the fight against crime, the development of common immigration and asylum policies and on foreign and security policy. As a model for a successful “reinforced cooperation” he mentioned the Economic and Monetary Union and Schengen. Although he did not want the closer cooperation to be misunderstood as the end of integration and consequently the preliminary stage to a divided Union, he further underscored the concept by proclaiming that this step would constitute the formation of a “center of gravity.” Such a group of states should conclude a new European framework treaty, would develop their own institutions and establish a government that speaks with one voice within the European Union. This proclaimed “center of gravity” should be the avant-garde, some kind of driving force for the completion of political integration.

“Not a year goes by without some fresh blueprint being drawn up and fed into the continuing debate. Each succeeding blueprint can be likened to the way in which some artists go over their work again and again, gradually building up a deep richness to the emerging picture.” “Old paint on canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter ‘repented,’ changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again.”