Mouvement de la Paix acts in order to establish new relations among peoples, countries, international regional and continental organizations. With a view to the next generations, these new relations based on peace, disarmament and respect for the international law must offer the possibility to live without war and share the advances in the human rights field, knowledge, science and culture.

This culture of peace, together with the ideas of social justice and democratic life of civil society, lies at the basis of our principles.

Europe has been an area structured by a number of treaties for more than 40 years and then regularly enlarged to become the European Union at present constituted by 25 Member States.

Mouvement de la Paix supports the idea that building the Union makes it a place for implementing new relations among peoples that fought each other in the past.

We want the European Union to become the symbol of reconciliation, cooperation and of the main democratic and social dynamics for all the peoples of the earth, and to devote to the building of a true culture of peace.

The discussion of the Constitutional Treaty submitted to a referendum should be the occasion for everybody to express such demands and to check that the articles are in accordance with them, that they allow to pursue on the way of cooperation, respect of the rights, democratic debate, peace and disarmament.

Mouvement de la Paix wishes to express its point of view in this debate

In Part I, Title I, the promotion of peace and its values are included in the objectives of the Union (art. I-3-1). We think that peace is one of the Union's values (art. I-2). In Title V (chapter II) the Foreign Policy for Security and Defence proposed by the constitutional text should be more clearly based on the international law and the multilateralism supported by the United Nations and the fundamental values of its Charter: ban war as a political means, refusal of force to resolve conflicts and disarmament.

Others aspects should be included, such as:

•  respect of disarmament treaties and international rights conventions

•  development of human rights and achievement of new rights

•  Union engagement in fostering a culture of peace as drive of a mutual, durable and harmonious development.

Europe should promote “common security” and modern cooperation grounded on multilateralism, and “human security” based on the Human Rights European Convention and the European Council achievements, as well as on the implication of the civil society and the associations. In the context of conflicts prevention, the difficult role of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ) must be defended.

This suggests that the EU policies shouldn't be subordinated to NATO tutelage

We are seriously worried about the following commitment in article I-41-2: “ The policy of the Union (…) respect the obligations of certain Member States, which see their common defence realised in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, under the North Atlantic Treaty, and be compatible with the common security and defence policy established within that framework ».

We would like Europe to actively participate in worldwide disarmament. In the year of the 60th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, people and their representatives should double their efforts to take step forwards disarmament at the NPT Review Conference in May 2005.

Mouvement de la Paix and the Italian pacifists collected hundreds of thousand of signatures on their petition demanding that article I of the constitutional treaty is the following :

Article I : « Europe rejects war as means of international conflict resolution and acknowledges the right to peace as a fundamental right. Europe promotes the creation of a worldwide pacific order and supports the reinforcement and democratization of the United Nations and the development of international cooperation”.

The present project develops another trend, with Europe militarizing more and more, engaging in boosting its military capacities and weapon production, without condemning arms traffic and investing more and more in the military research in view of “future operational needs”. No mention to the future of nuclear weapons in Europe, not even to the Union's attitude towards the demands of the NPT and to disarmament.

We can't but consider this project with regard to the other fundamental rights of the Peace Culture included by the UN in its 10 th anniversary of the Peace Culture programme.

This brings us back to rights and freedom, social justice and democracy within the Union.

Therefore, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, already in the Nice Treaty, is not an “extra” that we owe to the new project. However, its inadequacy in several issues (social rights, social covering, women's rights, abortion, contraception, immigrants rights, nationality, asylum right, laity, free circulation of people..), its lack of progress despite some already existing social charters in Europe and some normal situations already achieved, its non-indictability in case of violation, would achieve “constitutional value”, then legally difficult to change. However, there are still some law initiatives that remain in the hands of the Commission, though some progress in the prerogatives of the European Parliament has been made.

In our opinion, the constitutional text proposed is not reflecting our global and dynamic vision of the creation of a Europe of peace. Mouvement de la Paix considers the constitutional treaty to be far from its fundamental principles and is therefore very critical in this respect.

It's then the citizen's duty to openly express their opinion on the next referendum. Mouvement de la Paix wishes that many people will do so. It calls for its associates to defend, in the current debate, their will to demand a democratic and peaceful Europe, engaged in social justice and cooperation, durable development, disarmament and political conflict resolution in accordance with the international law, the UN role and its Charter's principles.

April 2005