Suchergebnisse

The Constitution ratified on October 5, 1958 did not mention Europe, although the latter had been created in Rome on March 25, 1957. For 35 years, the construction of Europe was the domain of diplomats and civil servants, until the democratic deficit awakened the Parliaments (in 1979) and the Treaty of Maastricht, signed in 1992, made its entry into the Constitution inevitable. Apparently, Europe has strengthened the dominant traits of the Fifth Republic: a two-headed executive, a weak parliament, and a great centralization of power. But reality is quite different: power resides elsewhere due to the permanent transfers of competence and of sovereignty, to the emergence of a European society and, more recently, to the growing globalization. One may therefore consider that the belated and limited institutional inscription of Europe in the Fifth Republic does not give a true account of its real place in the new Republic. Today Europe represents the future of France in the world. Adapted from the source document.