The creation of an advance party of Member States is presented as a panacea for breaking the current deadlock surrounding the adoption of the Constitution. This is far easier said than actually written into the text of the draft Constitution now on the table of the Inter- Governmental Conference (IGC). In fact, one is tempted to consider that the question is wrongly premised. Indeed, the idea of an avant-garde has never worked in practice, while in contrast Europe has in several instances been successful in setting up a rear guard consisting of those Member States unwilling to participate in a new policy. This approach could also be considered for those Member States that could not adopt the Constitution following a negative result in a referendum. Artile published in April 2004.

Lamoureux_02.pdf