In their own words
The EU Constitution is the birth certificate of the United States of Europe.
– German Minister for Europe Hans Martin Bury, Die Welt, 25-2-2005
The European Constitution gives the EU a "legal personality" to represent member states in relations with the rest of the world, and in doing so takes over the function of statehood under international law. Any decision taken by the EU has priority over the democratically decided laws
of member states. Even our national constitutions are ignored if they are in conflict with a decision coming from Brussels…. The EU will get its own Ministry for Foreign Affairs and a joint military force. A President and a joint minister for Foreign Affairs will, together with a joint Prime Minister … represent the EU in relations with other countries in the world. The twenty-five member states will become constituent states akin to the US model, but with less freedom to legislate independently than American states enjoy.
Minority Report of the European Parliament’s Report on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, (2004/2129(INI), 9 December 2004.
Creating a single European State bound by one European Constitution is the decisive task of our time.
– German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Daily Telegraph, 27-12-1998
We know that nine out of 10 people will not have read the Constitution and will vote on the basis of what politicians and journalists say. More than that, if the answer is No, the vote will probably have to be done again, because it absolutely has to be Yes.
Jean-Luc Dehaene, Former Belgian Prime Minister and Vice-President of the EU Convention Irish Times, 2 June 2004.
This pact is the point of no return. Europe is becoming an irreversible project, irrevocable after the ratification of this treaty. It is a new era for Europe, a new geography, a new history.
French Prime Minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Le Metro, 7 October 2004
For Peter Hain to turn round and say that this EU Constitution is merely a 'tidying up' exercise is an insult to everybody's intelligence and should be treated with the derision which it has attracted.
Roger Godsiff MP (Labour), 26th June 2003
In Europe one needs to act 'as if' - as if what was wanted was little, in order to obtain much, as if States were to remain sovereign to convince them to concede sovereignty ... The Commission in Brussels, for example, should act as if it were a technical instrument, in order to be able to be treated as a government. And so on by disguise and subterfuge
– Giuliano Amato, Italian Prime Minister and later Vice-President of the EU Convention which drafted the Constitution, interview with Barbara Spinelli, La Stampa, 13-7-2000
The Constitution and law adopted by the institutions of the union in exercising competences conferred on it shall have primacy over the laws of the member states.
Article I-6: The EU Constitution
Our Constitution cannot be reduced to a mere treaty for co-operation between governments. Anyone who has not yet grasped this fact deserves to wear the dunce’s cap.
Valerie Giscard-D’Estang, President of the EU Convention, from a speech in Aachen accepting the Charlemaigne Prize for European integration, 29/05/2003.
It wasn't worth creating a negative commotion with the British. I rewrote my text with the word federal replaced by communautaire, which means exactly the same thing.
– Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Wall Street Journal Europe, 7-7-2003
If you don’t want to call it a European army, don’t call it a European army. You can call it ‘Margaret’, you can call it ‘Mary-Anne’, you can find any name; but, for the first time, you have a joint, not bilateral, effort at European level.
The Independent, 4th February, 2000
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