France’s ratification of the Nice Treaty. Juridical technique and political mobilization

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Community construction is both included in the international system and singled out because of its attempt to devise an autonomous juridical system. There is also the fact that it belongs to a logic of « process » that confers its constructions an irreversible quality, which makes them be considered « established ». Because of its unilateral dynamics and its very technical aspect, this method has maintained diffidence in the public opinion towards integration and community institutions. Thus the authors of the Nice Treaty have attempted to put a stop to this order of things by striving to set up a common space that would be political as well as economical. Such an approach implies a new framework of institutions : this framework has been thought up but it has not been used yet, as the conclusion of the Nice Treaty has been made in the traditional community method. Thus the ratification procedure of the Nice Treaty on France shows a « unanimist » method. This blatant display of the limits of the community technique enhances the necessity of a political mobilization that would open the way to a collective consciousness and voice of the European nations. – Summary AFRI-2002