Reply To: Article 1 should (not) link to external legal documents

[Herbert Tombeur]

I propose this text for clause 3 in Article 1: “The Federation Europe subscribes the stipulations of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, which rights shall have the same legal value as the Constitution.”. Full stop. No extra referring to other treaties nor to any political declaration or other document. Why? First, the core of a federal Constitution is the political assignment, i.e. the transference of some competences from the member states, of the federation and the institutional organisation of this new governance level. Secondly, such extra stipulations would bind ex ante the European Federation, yet to be constituted. Referring to more external documents would also be premature, as nobody knows when this Federation will be created and in which internal and international situation – e.g. the EU could be collapsing in a few years time.