Publication

This paper discusses the global power of the EU, with a particular focus on the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). The Constitutional Treaty is considered in the light of the "pause for reflection," declared after the failed referendums in France and the Netherlands in the summer of 2005. The author states that the optimal solution to the question of positioning the European Union as a global power would be for the EU to assume a primarily regional role, based on universal values and preferences such as democracy, human rights, solidarity, justice and peace. The paper explains that the best way to achieve such a process of transformation is by implementing major legal changes to EU voting rules in connection with the enlargement process, and at the same time gradually to dissolve the pillar system in practice via the ESDP missions.