time for some european politics

[Occhidiangela]

My main problem with is that it looks like a piece of paper on which all countries could put some of their important wishes on....and because all government wanted this constitution so bad, they did not think about what people really wanted.

One example (my main reason to vote NO although I'm in favour of a european constitution):
The articles about animal rights and agriculture are written in such a way that we go a huge step back. From now on bioindustry is a thing supported by the constitution, and as long if it is a "tradition" or cultural heritage, people can do what they want with animals. (so in no particular order: bull fighting in Spain, force feeding geese in France, dancing bears in the east, shooting of birds on Malta, fox hunting in brittain, and everything you can invent yourself). These things were in the countries still allowed but a lot of work is done to try to end these things, once it is in a constitution, this is gonna be very hard.

I know it can be changed, but cannot imagine that this is put in the constitution.

It is like putting "if you feel threatened you can kill somebody" in the constitution.
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eppie:

The US first agred on the Articles of Confederation, and while operating under those, drafted, negotiated, ammended, and then finally compromised enough (slavery was one area of compromise, for example) to get all 13 states to agree on a Constitution + first ten Ammendments. (AKA the Bill of Rights.)

The states were very jealous of their sovreign status, and it was not until our Civil War (1861-1865) that the federal govt took a significant leap in real power.

Europe has been having wars for centuries, so your constitutional process seems almost the inverse of ours, with the exception of the need for twenty one versus thirteen "States" to agree to the framework document. I'd guess your challenge is at least twice ours, if not four times as hard. As noted by Kylaren, this is a continuation of a decades long process. I'd offer that its genesis was in the BeNeLux framework in the late 1940's early 1950's. So, it is a two or three generations old work in progress.

Getting enough people to be happy enough -- there can be no perfect constitution, see ours as meeting the "good enough" standard -- is hard, hard work.

FWIW: Canada's constitution is vintage 1982.

Any Canadian Lurkers care to comment on that process vis a vis the European's work to date?

Occhi