New EU treaty efforts to replace constitution
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Efforts are again being made in the EU to develop some form of simplified treaty following the rejection of the EU Constitution in 2005. A small group of politicians, headed by former Italian prime minister Guiliano Amato and known unofficially as the Amato Group, has reduced the original Constitution text from 448 articles down to 70, plus two protocols - one containing institutional changes and the other policy innovations. But it is not clear how this work marries up with the discussions that have been going on within the context of the German EU presidency of the EU Council, due to end on June 30.