As this rapid overview indicates, it is often hard to disentangle exactly what
does the work in many normative arguments about the EU—ontology,
methodology, empirical assumptions, or ideological preferences. Theorists
who diVer on almost everything else can still converge on policy recom-
mendations and vice versa. To explore why, we shall examine two key debates
in which theorists have played an important part: that on the EU’s Charter of
Rights and the proposed Constitutional treaty, and the related discussion of
citizenship and the EU’s democratic deWcit.
3TheEU’sCharterofRightsand
Constitutional Treaty
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The Convention on the Future of Europe was the culmination of a decade long
concern with the EU’s legitimacy (Beetham and Lord 1998 ; BanchoVand Smith
1999 ). The Treaty of Maastricht, and the diYculties experienced in ratifying it in
subsequent referenda in France and especially Denmark, raised fundamental
questions about the ultimate goals and methods of European integration.
Meanwhile, the corruption scandals surrounding the Santer Commission
added concerns over the propriety of the institutional mechanisms employed
to govern it. The introduction of the euro and enlargement to encompass ten
new states, including eight from the former Soviet bloc, added to these worries.
Several theorists saw the drafting of a Charter of Rights and Constitution as a
way of addressing the EU’s perceived normative weaknesses by placing it on
clear, principled foundations (Habermas 2001 ; Eriksen and Fossum 2004 ).
However, others have regarded them as potentially deepening these worries
(Weiler and Wind 2003 ; Dobson and Follesdal 2004 ; Barry 2004 ).
These contrasting judgments about the appropriateness and possible con-
tent of an EU Charter and Constitution reXected the two dimensions ex-
plored above: namely, diVering views of political community, on the one
hand, and of the degree to which the EU secured or undermined the favored
model, on the other. Moreover, these positionsWgured not only in academic
debates but also in the two conventions established to draft these documents.
With regard to the Charter, the two major issues were the relationship
between any EU Charter and those of the member states, and the range of
the challenge of european union 249