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The article examines the agenda for the future structure and direction of the European Union. France and the Netherlands voted against the European constitution project in 2005. But this does not mean the Union will be reduced to a state of political crisis. Constitutional treaties can be calculated in both material and symbolic terms and social effects in terms of political morality. The Amsterdam and Nice treaty left unfinished institutional business in the face of the pending European Union enlargement.

The article reports that although the European constitution project was rejected, Europe has long since had a constitution in the European treaties. In May and June 2005, France and the Netherlands citizens decided to vote against the proposed constitution. Several reasons why the European treaties represent a constitution for the Union is cited. The European treaties from Rome to Nice constitutionalize a union of democratic legal communities, not an arbitrary hereditary monarchy. These treaties though, are not an egalitarian constitution for the citizenry of Europe.

The article examines the 2005 rejection of the European Constitution Project in a referenda held in France and the Netherlands. For those who voted against the project, it was an awareness that the European Union's free market system was not favoring Europe's middles and working classes. The perception was that Europe's elites were using EU policies to destroy national welfare systems, privatize public services and weaken regulatory devices. The approval of the constitution would have accelerated enlargement of the Union to include Turkey.

The article examines the European Constitution Project after it was rejected in a popular referenda. Although the project was not abandoned, it was placed in a state of suspension to allow a period of reflection for a year before any further decision or action is taken. Fourteen of the 25 member states of the European Union have ratified the project which includes Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece and Hungary. It was rejected by France and the Netherlands. Since France and the Netherlands were two of the founding members of the European Union, their no vote alone placed the project in its current state.