We are now 27! From the county of Kerry to the eastern Carpathians, from Lapland to the Canary Islands! That is, nearly 500 million inhabitants enjoying an unknown level of peace and social and economic progress in modern history.

And yet, we have been asking ourselves for more than a decade – since the signing of the Maastricht Treaty – what Europe we want. Apparently it is not an easy question. For a long time we have tried to answer it without having the subject of the sentence correct: it is not about determining what kind of Europe we, the politicians and civil servants who work day to day at the European Union institutions, want, but to find out what kind of Europe “we”, the citizens, want.

Once the European politicians realised, quite a while ago, that the European Union had no future unless it relied on the firm support from the people, they launched a process of reflection and debate which led to the elaboration and adoption of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, signed by the governments of the EU member states in Rome, on 29 October 2004.

Certainly, the text of this constitutional treaty is not perfect. Neither is the democracy we enjoy as a government system, but it is the best one we know. Politics is the art of what is possible today; spiced up with the healthy ambition to try to do tomorrow what was impossible before.

The Constitutional Treaty tries to offer solutions or, at least, indicate ways of progress so that the union and its member states can confront the great challenges ahead, produced by the new social and economic reality, both within and beyond our borders. The goal is to provide an adequate answer to citizens’ expectations on issues such as the environment, energy policy, immigration, development and aid, and both internal and external security.

At one specific point, the Constitutional Treaty clearly makes a step forward. And that is the one related to the EU foreign policy. When the work leading to the adoption of this new text started, it was crystal clear that there were two important areas in which European citizens expected a lot from the European Union.

One was the construction of a real space of freedom, security and justice within the EU. The other was foreign policy.

The new text begins by setting a number of ambitious objectives, reflecting on the wish of men and women of Europe to feel truly proud of a European Union as an actor, and not just a mere subject of the international relations, but above all, a European Union capable at all times of promoting and defending its values.

Those values are clearly embedded in the Constitutional Treaty, mentioning from the outset, that the EU is based on the respect of human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and, above all, respect for human rights.

Straight after these words, the Constitutional Treaty underlines that, in its relations with the rest of the world, the EU will “promote its values” and, to do this, it will contribute to peace and security, to the global sustainable development, to solidarity and mutual respect among peoples, to free trade, to the eradication of poverty, the protection of human rights and to the strict observance of International law.

However, all these principles would hardly amount to anything but a list of good intentions if the EU did not have at its disposal the necessary tools to act efficiently. That is why the Constitutional Treaty allows, for instance, for longer periods of permanence for the President of the European Council or the creation of the EU Foreign Minister, who would rely on the support of a European Union Foreign Service; that is also why a special emphasis is given to the need in guaranteeing the coherence among the array of instruments of the EU foreign policy, streamlining and speeding up the decision-taking process, financing and the consideration of mechanisms to strengthen our defence and security policy, based on voluntary participation.

All these innovations will allow the EU in the future to better confront situations such as the humanitarian crisis that followed the tsunami in Southeast Asia in December 2004, or the violent clashes in Lebanon last spring. These tools will further empower the EU to better participate in missions such as the support to the recent elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo or the peace-keeping and stability mission in Kosovo. Also, they will make possible a more earnest and efficient EU action in the Middle East.

We need an EU able to firmly raise her voice, without arrogance, when dealing with international issues of such critical importance as global warming, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the adoption of an international trade system, combining economic progress with social justice. Europe cannot afford to be absent. And we, the citizens, should not let this happen.

From this angle, the Constitutional Treaty will place the EU foreign policy at the level expected by its citizens. Its coming into force will not be sufficient, though, to substantially improve our still modest record in terms of common foreign and security policy that member states observe at the EU. To do better, a clear political decision by national governments is still needed. The Constitutional Treaty is, however, a requirement to reach this goal.

These considerations and other similar thoughts have led the governments of Luxembourg and Spain to organise an informal meeting on 26 January 2007 in Madrid of those EU member states having already ratified (18 so far) the Constitutional Treaty. The aim is to debate what we can do in order to preserve the undeniable progress this text represents.

The European challenge at the beginning of the 21st century is to firmly anchor the project of European integration in a rapidly changing and complex world. Future generations will pass judgement on us based on our efforts invested in this endeavour. In order to embark upon this journey we will need to recuperate the spirit of the founding fathers such as Schuman and Monnet, and also to use the necessary means, being the Constitutional Treaty; without any doubt, the best tool in our bag. Should it not exist, we should invent a similar one.

Miguel Angel Moratinos is Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister of Spain and

Jean Asselborn is Vice-Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister of Luxembourg