Speech by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia
H. E. Mrs. Sandra Kalniete, the representative
of the Latvian government at the Convention
Brussels, April 25, 2003

Mr President,

The European Union is made up of the Member States who voluntarily delegate a part of their sovereignty to the Union. Therefore, the citizens of the Union must have a guaranteed right to the return of the delegated part of their sovereignty. That is why I support the proposal of the Praesidium that the Constitutional Treaty should contain provisions clearly vesting power in the States voluntarily to join and to withdraw from the European Union.

I consider it insufficient to take existing international law, the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, as the basis for Member States to be entitled to withdraw voluntarily from the Union, since we are not only talking about the legal nature of the procedure, but we are also sending out a powerful political message. There is also a psychological dimension to this message. The people have to know that there is a right of choice. They choose to join the Union; they have a right to choose to secede from the Union.

I am fully aware that this clause will never be used, but it has to be present as a symbol in the Constitutional Treaty. I fully agree that the secession procedure has to be worked out very carefully, taking into account the interests both of the Member States of the Union and of the State whose people choose to secede. What might be the cause of secession? It would only happen if the constitutional basis of the Union were changed.