The Constitution was devised to take some steps towards making the European Union and its institutions more democratic. For a start the European Parliament would have had the right to co-legislate in all areas of legislation that are subject to qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers.

Also, the European assembly would have had a say in the election of the Commission President - the draft commited EU leaders to "take into account" the results of the European elections when choosing a new leader for the EU executive. This minor improvement could have given the Commission President the democratic legitimacy needed.

Similarly, a new article on participatory democracy was drawn up which suggested that if one million citizens from a "significant" number of states signed a petition, then they could have asked the Commission to submit a legislative proposal on its subject matter.

It also allowed for more involvement by national parliaments whereby 1/3 of national parliaments could demand a review of a Commission proposal if it breached the subsidiarity principle (which states the Union only takes action when it is more effective than action taken at the national or local level). However, they did not have the power to veto it - but they could ask the European Court of Justice to rule on whether legislation has breached the subsidiarity principle.

After the document was signed at the 17-18 June Summit, the text had to go through the ratification procedure in each of the 25 member states.  The ratification process failed at the 2006 French and Dutch referenda.

The Constitution stated that if 4/5 of member had ratified the text after two years, and some states still had not, then EU leaders would discuss the matter.  That is exactly what is happening on 2007.

Full text of the EU Constitution as proposed