Italy · 1 year of the European Constitution

The so-called European Constitution was legally the “Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe”. It was intended to reorganize the existing European treaties and simplify the functioning of the European Union (Europäische Union), which had grown to 25 Member States after several enlargements. The planned innovations included a single legal personality for the EU, more clearly defined competences, amended voting rules and new institutional offices. The Charter of Fundamental Rights (Charta der Grundrechte) was also intended to become a binding part of European treaty law.

The text was prepared by the European Convention (Europäischer Konvent) under the chairmanship of former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Representatives of the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the European Parliament (Europäisches Parlament) and the European Commission (Europäische Kommission) deliberated there on the future organization of the Union. The signing took place on 29 October 2004 in Rome, in the Hall of the Horatii and Curiatii on the Capitoline Hill. The Treaties of Rome (Römische Verträge), which established the European Economic Community and Euratom, had already been signed there in 1957. Italy and Rome therefore had a direct historical connection to the project.

For the Constitutional Treaty to enter into force, it had to be ratified by all Member States according to their respective procedures. In several countries, the parliaments or the population approved it. Referendums in France and the Netherlands rejected the Treaty in 2005, however. It therefore never entered into force. Many of its institutional provisions were later incorporated in amended form into the Treaty of Lisbon (Vertrag von Lissabon), which has been in force since 2009.

The association of Europe with a bull originates in Greek mythology. Zeus approached Europa, the Phoenician king’s daughter, in the form of a bull and took her to Crete. This story became a widespread pictorial personification of the continent. For Italy, the coin issue offered the opportunity to portray the Treaty signed in Rome as a step towards European integration, even though its failure in the ratification process was already foreseeable when the issue was released.