Constitutional implications of Portugal's participation in the european integration process : significant recent developments

Abstract

The development of the European integration process involves a certain legal and constitutional profile of the Member States, whose practical consequences depend on the very profile of the Constitutions of those States. With regard to Portugal, it's Constitution has been subjected to several constitutional amendments which attended the issue of integration, to a greater or lesser degree, in advance or in development of Portugal's accession to the European Union; we proceed with some detail to the analysis of the fundamental changes carried out by the 6th and 7th constitutional amendments, the latest ones, which currently conform Portugal's Constitution with imperatives of European integration (the first considering the perspective of the eventual approval of the failed European Constitutional Treaty and the second allowing an adjustment of the Portuguese Constitution to certain circumstances arising from the integration process). In September 2010, a group of parliamentarians presented to the Parliament a proposal that would trigger the 8th constitutional amendment process, interrupted in March 2011 following the dissolution of the XI Legislature; the early outcome of this process does not obscure its theoretical importance, given the relevant reflections of the Provisional Committee for Constitutional Amendment, which justify a review intended to complement a current perspective of this subject.