It is interesting to see how some people claim the new constitution is a great victory for federalists. That is certainly not the view of many federalists whom I know.

From a federalist perspective, the draft constitutional treaty can be strongly criticised. It fails to set up a European Federation and, indeed, it contains a number of steps away from the federal dream and in the direction of a Union of nation states. Under its terms, the Union remains based on a treaty which can only be amended with the agreement of each and every member state. Several key areas of decision taking remain subject to unanimity. The Commission is potentially weakened, both in terms of its composition (one per country until 2014, equal rotation thereafter) and in terms of the creation of a separate President of the European Council. The latter will be appointed by national governments with no input from the European Parliament and will strengthen the inter-governmental features of the Union at the expense of the supra-national dimension.

Even the creation of a European Minister for Foreign Affairs is not the step forward that many federalists might have hoped for. On the contrary, the structure envisaged could mean that the external relations powers of the Commission are captured by the Council. In effect, the current "High Representative for Foreign Affairs", appointed by the national governments in the Council, takes over the position of External
Relations Commissioner as well and the relevant Commission departments could be removed from the Commission to come under his/her authority.

The Common Foreign and Security Policy amounts largely to a co-ordination of national positions and is only "common" if all member states agree on the same position. There is no scope for harmonising taxation, as this still requires unanimity.