It would have replaced the existing European Union treaties with a single text, given legal force to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and expanded qualified majority voting into policy areas which had previously been decided by unanimity among member states.

Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, backed a draft text, termed the 'Penelope Project', which contained a deeper integration of the countries and a clearer institutional model.

Among these were Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia, which in May 2004 sent a letter to the Irish Presidency, saying "the governments of those countries consider as a priority the recognition of the Christian tradition in the Preamble" and noting that the list of signatories was not exhaustive as they hoped other countries would join their initiative.

Among other nations, Spain originally supported the inclusion of a reference to Christianity, but the incoming Zapatero government reversed the stance of its predecessor.

Eventually the agreed-upon Constitution made no explicit references to Christianity, only mentioning the "cultural, religious and humanist inheritance of Europe".

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was signed in Rome on 29 October 2004 by 53 senior political figures from the 25 member states of the European Union.

[4] On 20 April 2004, the then British prime minister Tony Blair unexpectedly announced an intention to hold a referendum, a proposal which he had previously rejected.

[9] In the June 2007 European summit meeting, member states agreed to abandon the constitution and to amend the existing treaties, which would remain in force.

The EU would have no competences by right, and thus any areas of policy not explicitly specified in the Constitution would have remained the domain of the sovereign member states (notwithstanding the ‘flexibility clause').

According to the TCE, the EU may act (i.e. make laws) only where its member states agree unanimously that actions by individual countries would be insufficient.

It is a main argument against claims that Europe limits national sovereignty, but critics say that it is a principle to which lip service only is paid and, in practice, the reach of the EU has been increasingly ambitious.

National law that is incompatible with an agreement already made at European level is deemed to be 'disapplied' when questions arise in courts.

This controversial and fundamental principle of European Community law was first recognised in the case of Van Gend en Loos in 1963 which was followed in Costa v. ENEL in 1964.

This would continue to exist alongside the protection of fundamental rights as general principles of EU law (article (I-9(3) TCE).

They did mandate the EU "to assert its identity on the international scene",[50] and permitted the European Union to enter into treaties.

However, it is a long document couched in technical terms, which proved unpopular when presented (for example) to French voters in their referendum on the TCE.

The TCE unifies legal instruments across areas of policy (referred to as pillars of the European Union in previous treaties).

This individual would be responsible for co-ordinating foreign policy across the Union, representing the EU abroad in areas where member states agree to speak with one voice.

(The 55% is raised to 72% when the Council acts on its own initiative rather than on a legislative proposal from the Commission or the Union Minister for Foreign Affairs.)

The unanimous agreement of all member states would only be required for decisions on more sensitive issues, such as tax, social security, foreign policy and defence.

The six-month rotating Presidency of the European Council would switch to a chair chosen by the heads of government, in office for 2+1⁄2 years and renewable once.

A minimum of one third of member states would now be forced to participate in any enhanced cooperation, and the agreement of the European Parliament is needed.

Traditionally amendments to the EU treaties were considered in inter-governmental conferences in which the European Council would meet in long private sessions in order to reach unanimous agreement on the proposed changes.

The Constitution also proposed a general 'passerelle clause' (Article IV-444) with which the European Council could agree to: in a specific policy area.