From the Horse's Mouth...Ratification of the Constitution

Ratification of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

Interactive map displaying the state of play in the Member States

Background

On 29 October 2004, the Heads of State or Government of the 25 Member States and the 3 candidate countries signed the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe which was unanimously adopted by them on 18 June of the same year.

This Treaty can only enter into force when it has been adopted by each of the signatory countries in accordance with its own constitutional procedures: this is called the ratification of the Treaty by the Member States.Depending on the countries' legal and historical traditions, the procedures laid down by the constitutions for this purpose are not identical: they comprise either or both of the following two types of mechanism:

• the "parliamentary" method: the text is adopted following a vote on a text ratifying an international Treaty by the State's parliamentary Chamber(s);
• the "referendum" method: a referendum is held, submitting the text of the Treaty directly to citizens, who vote for or against it.

There may be variants or combinations of these two methods, depending on the country, or other requirements, e.g. when the ratification of the Treaty entails a prior adjustment of the national Constitution because of the content of the text.

Once the Treaty has been ratified and the ratification has been officially notified by all the signatory States (lodging of the ratification instruments), the Treaty can enter into force and become effective, in principle, according to the Treaty, on 01 November 2006.