Everything about Nice Treaty totally explained
The
Treaty of Nice is a
treaty adopted in
Nice by the
European Council to amend the two founding treaties of the
European Union:
Provisions of the Treaty
The primary purpose of the Treaty of Nice was to reform the institutional structure to withstand the
Enlargement of the European Union, a task which was supposed to have been carried out at the Amsterdam
Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC), but the
Treaty of Amsterdam failed to address most of the issues.
The Treaty adopted by the Nice European Council was attacked by many.
Germany had demanded that its greater population be reflected in a higher vote weighting in the Council; this was opposed by
France, who insisted that the symbolic parity between France and Germany be maintained. One proposal made by many, which would have greatly simplified the current system, was to introduce a double majority of both member states and population, to replace the current
Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) system. This was also rejected by France for similar reasons. A compromise was reached, which provided for a double majority of Member States and votes cast, and in which a Member State could optionally request verification that the countries voting in favour represented a sufficient proportion of the Union's population.
The Treaty provided for an increase after enlargement of the number of seats in the
European Parliament to 732, which exceeded the cap established by the Treaty of Amsterdam.
The question of a reduction in the size of the
European Commission after enlargement was resolved to a degree — the Treaty providing that once the number of Member States reached 27, the number of Commissioners appointed in the subsequent Commission would be reduced by the Council to below 27, but without actually specifying the target of that reduction. As a transitional measure it specified that after
1 January 2005, Germany, France, the UK, Italy and Spain would each give up their second Commissioner.
The Treaty provided for the creation of subsidiary courts below the
European Court of Justice and the
Court of First Instance to deal with special areas of law such as patents.
The Treaty of Nice provides for new rules on closer co-operation, the rules introduced in the Treaty of Amsterdam being viewed as unworkable, and hence these rules have not yet been used.
In response to the failed sanctions against
Austria following a coalition including
Jörg Haider's party having come to power, and fears about possible future threats to the stability of the new member states to be admitted in enlargement, the Treaty of Nice for the first time adopted formal rules for the application of sanctions against a Member State.
The Treaty also contained provisions to deal with the financial consequences of the expiry of the
European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) treaty (
Treaty of Paris (1951)).
It was widely accepted that the Treaty of Nice has failed to deal with the basic question of wide-ranging institutional reform, the European Union institutions being widely viewed as overly complicated, and hence the establishment of the
European Convention, leading to a new IGC in
2004, was agreed at Nice.
The Commission and the
European Parliament were disappointed that the Nice IGC didn't adopt many of their proposals for reform of the institutional structure or introduction of new Community powers, such as the appointment of a European Public Prosecutor. The European Parliament threatened to pass a resolution against the Treaty; although it has no formal power of veto, the
Italian Parliament threatened that it wouldn't ratify without the European Parliament's support. However, in the end this didn't come to pass and the European Parliament approved the Treaty.
Many argue that the
pillar structure, which was maintained by the Treaty, is overly complicated, that the separate Treaties should be merged into one Treaty, and that the three (now two) separate legal personalities of the Communities should be merged, and that the European Community and the European Union should be merged with the European Union being endowed with
legal personality. The German regions were also demanding a clearer separation of the powers of the Union from the Member States.
Nor did the Treaty of Nice deal with the question of the incorporation of the
Charter of Fundamental Rights into the Treaty; that was also left for the
2004 IGC after the opposition of the
United Kingdom.
Ratification process
Under the current rules for the amendment of the Treaties, the Treaties can only be amended by a new Treaty, which must be ratified by each of the Member States to enter into force.
In all the EU member states the Treaty of Nice was ratified by parliamentary procedure, except in Ireland, where the Irish Supreme Court in an earlier judgement on the
Single European Act had ruled that fundamental changes to European Treaties, which alter the
Irish Constitution's recognition of sovereignty as being ultimately derived from the People, require an amendment to the Irish constitution. Ireland's constitution can only be amended by a referendum of the people.
To the surprise of Europe's political classes, the voters in Ireland
rejected the Treaty of Nice in June 2001. The turnout itself was low (34%), partly a result of the failure of the major Irish political parties to mount a strong campaign on the issue, presuming that the Irish electorate would pass the Treaty as all previous such Treaties had been passed by big majorities.
However many Irish voters were critical of the Treaty contents, believing that it marginalised smaller states. Others questioned the impact of the Treaty on
Irish neutrality. Other sections viewed the leadership of the Union as out of touch and arrogant, with the Treaty offering a perceived chance to 'shock' the European leadership into a greater willingness to listen to its critics. (A similar argument was made when
Denmark initially
voted down the
Treaty of Maastricht.) In large measure, the Treaty of Nice was lost because pro-treaty supporters simply never bothered to vote, while the 'Vote No' campaigns were effective in raising serious questions as to the value of the Treaty.
The Irish government, having obtained the Seville Declaration on Ireland's policy of military neutrality from the European Council, decided to have
another referendum on the Treaty of Nice on Saturday,
19 October 2002. Two significant qualifications were included in the second proposed amendment, one requiring the consent of the
Dáil for
"enhanced cooperation" under the treaty, and another preventing Ireland from joining any EU common defence policy. A 'Yes' vote was urged by a massive campaign by the main parties and for the first time in European referendums in Ireland by civil society and the social partners, including campaigning through canvassing and all forms of media by respected
pro-European figures like then
EP president
Pat Cox, former
Czech president
Václav Havel, former
President of Ireland Patrick Hillery and former
Taoiseach (prime minister)
Dr. Garret Fitzgerald. Prominent civil society campaigns on the Yes side included
Fianna Fáil,
Fine Gael, the
Labour Party, the
Progressive Democrats, the
Irish Alliance for Europe led by Professor Brigid Laffan and Adrian Langan, and
Ireland for Europe led by Ciarán Toland. On the No Side, the principal campaigns were those of the
Green Party,
Sinn Féin, Anthony Coughlan's National Platform,
Justin Barrett's No to Nice campaign, and Roger Cole's Peace and Neutrality Alliance. The result was a 60% "Yes" vote on almost 150% of the turn-out of the previous referendum.
By then all other EU member states had ratified the Treaty. Ratification by all parties was required by the end of the year, or else the Treaty would have expired.
Views of the Treaty
Proponents of the Treaty claim it's a utilitarian adjustment to cumbersome EU governing mechanisms and a required streamlining of decision-making processes, necessary to facilitate enlargement of the EU into
Central Europe. They claim that consequently is vitally important for the integration and future progress of these former
communist countries.
Many who are in favour of greater scope and power of the EU project, feel that it doesn't go far enough in fact, and that it may in any case be superseded by future treaties and agreements (such as the possible ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon/Reform Treaty). Proponents differ in the extent to which enlargement may proceed without it, some claiming the very future of the Union's growth if not existence to be at stake, while others saying that enlargement can legally proceed albeit at a slower pace without it.
Opponents of the Treaty claim that it's a "technocratic" rather than "democratic" treaty, which further diminishes the sovereignty of national/local parliaments, and further concentrating power into centralised and unaccountable bureaucracy - "deepening but not widening" political power. They also claim that five applicants may join at once under the current system, and that all others may negotiate on an individual basis - which they believe will be advantageous to the applicants. It is also claimed that the Treaty of Nice will create a two-class and two-tier EU, specifically to enable an "inner-club" of powerful states (for example
France and
Germany) to effectively co-opt EU institutions for their own purposes. Opponents point out that leading pro-treaty politicians have admitted, that were referendums to be held in countries other than Ireland, it would probably be defeated there as well.
References
Further Information
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