A draft for an European Constitution has been discussed in several meetings. The last one was on december 2003, but no agreement was reached, so the Constitution has not been approved yet.

Anyway, this draft does not indicate peace as a basic principle of the European Union. These principles are human dignity, liberty, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights (art.2).

Peace is only a generic objective, mentioned in article 3. The same article also affirms that "in its relations with the wider world, the Union shall uphold and promote its values and interests". This declaration is very similar to the U.S. imperial policy.

War is never openly refused as a mean to resolve conflicts. The article 210, referring to the tasks of the European army, says: "All these tasks may contribute to the fight against terrorism, including by supporting third countries in combating terrorism in their territories." This is a way to support the idea of preventive war and the right to intervene in other states' internal politics.

The article 40 declares a strict collaboration with NATO.

During the last years NATO has often proclaimed its strategy of preventive attack and obtained from many European states the permission to use U.S. military bases on their territory and to fly over their air space. To support this policy clearly means to support war and violence all over the world.

In the articles 40 and 212 the constitution of an European Armaments, Research and Military Capabilities Agency is declared. This agency, financed by funds provided by the member countries, should improve the military capabilities of the Union and finance projects of technological research in the field of armaments.

All this clearly ignores the new sensibility expressed in the huge demonstrations against the war of february 15 2003 in every European capital. Just when the imperial US politics shows its most ruthless face, with the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the torture and the cruel treatment of the prisoners of war in Guantanamo and the total disregard for the world public opinion, the European Union declares its submission to this aggressive vision of the world.

The Humanist European Regional demands to introduce the following changes to the text of the European Constitution:

• a clear refusal of war as a mean to resolve international conflicts and the recognition of peace as a basic right of individuals and people.
• the use of the funds for the Agency for armaments to finance development projects in the Third World countries and to develop scientific research instead of armaments technology research.
• the request, to all the member states, to exit NATO, as it is clearly a tool for U.S. imperial plans.
• the creation of an EU commissioner for peace and non-violence.

Moreover, we think that Europe must:

• disarm unilaterally all its weapons of mass destruction (nuclear, chemical and biological).
• stop selling weapons of mass destruction and the technology used to manufacture such weapons.