Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

For the first time since the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC Treaty) was concluded, it has been possible to find a separate chapter dealing with the energy sector as late as in the draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , whose final wording was signed on 29 October 2004 in Rome, (but it has never been ratified by all the member states).

What should this treaty, also known as “the European Constitution”, have brought, had it been ratified? At the moment, decisions concerning energy policy fall into the purview of each EU member state. If the abovementioned treaty had been ratified, energy-related matters would have been transferred into the area of so-called shared powers. This would have meant that the Union would have shared relevant powers with its member states. According to Article III-256 of the Treaty, the European Union’s tasks in the framework of the development and operation of the internal market and taking into account the need to protect and improve the environment would have been as follows:

• to ensure a functional energy market,
• to ensure safe and secure supplies of energies within the Union,
• to support and promote energy efficiency, energy savings, and the development of new and renewable energy resources.

As France and the Netherlands rejected the European Constitution Treaty in a referendum, the treaty did not take effect. European politicians were looking for other ways to implement some of the ideas stipulated in the Treaty, e.g. a drafting of another document, a reform (Lisbon) treaty, which could perhaps be acceptable for all EU member states.