Constitution and Political Identity in Europe

An uncertain ontological as well as (in the case of identity) epistemological status characterises the  issues this article is about. The Constitution exists as an international Treaty, which may or may not be ratified.  According to the time of writing and each individual author’s orientation in making political predictions  we can even think that it will not, that the constitutional process will be disrupted and the EU come out of the  subsequent crisis in a very different shape from now, perhaps even split into two concentric circles: a narrow  polity of a few countries with a Constitution and a larger Common Market without political frills, least of all  political identity and legitimacy. The Constitution is thus in the balance between existence and non-existence,  and this circumstance can have little relevance only to those who do not see the difference between a (before  ratification still incomplete) legal product of the EU-leadership (the European Council of June 2004) and a  political process which is far more incomplete because of its insufficient and uncertain roots in the European  constituencies. On the other hand, European identity is not only put on the same jigsaw between existence  and non existence, but also reveals changing and confusing features as soon as we take it from a research  field to another, from a school of thought to a different one. To make at last some steps out of this confusion,  this article will thus have to provide some definition before discussing the substantive issue, i.e. the relationship  between Constitution and identity. Moreover, this discussion must remain characterised by conditionality:  whatever can be said about that relationship, it will prove true or false only in case the Constitution is ratified  and the EU makes a step forward towards becoming a polity which is not only a matter of the Constitution  coming or not into force, as we shall see. On the contrary, my basic contention is that the constitutional  process plays a role in identity-formation, but a limited one, as political identity must be conceived of as a  broader and deeper process than the only drafting and passing of a second-grade Constitution such as the  European one.

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