Draft EU constitution. (Insider Report).

Unveiled in Brussels on May 26th, the proposed constitution for the European Union (EU) was drawn up by the Convention on the Future of Europe (CFE), a 105-member committee chaired by former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Among the document's key provisions, reported UPI, was the replacement of the EU's present six-month rotating presidency with a chief executive "elected from the current batch of heads of state for two and a half years."

The CFE freely compared its efforts to those of America's Founding Fathers. However, the Eurocrats' handiwork displays none of the U.S. Constitution's brevity and clarity: The document is 148 pages of dense and often ambiguous bureau-cratese. It would commit the formerly free nations of Europe to carry out UN-mandated social and economic policies intended to bring about "sustainable development ... with a social market economy" (that is, a socialist welfare state), undertake efforts to "combat social exclusion and ... promote social justice," as well as "strict observance and development of international law, including respect for the principles of the United Nations Charter."

Some CFE members complain that the draft constitution would consolidate power in the hands of Europe's largest nation-states. While this is a sensible criticism, it misses the central point: By consolidating power regionally, the proposed EU constitution represents yet another step toward consolidating power globally under the UN.