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 constitutionalprofile of the Member States, whose practical consequences depend on the very profile of the Constitutions ofthose States. With regard to Portugal, it's Constitution has been subjected to several constitutional amendmentswhich attended the issue of integration, to a greater or lesser degree, in advance or in development of Portugal'saccession to the European Union; we proceed with some detail to the analysis of the fundamental changescarried out by the 6th and 7th constitutional amendments, the latest ones, which currently conform Portugal'sConstitution with imperatives of European integration (the first considering the perspective of the eventualapproval of the failed European Constitutional Treaty and the second allowing an adjustment of the PortugueseConstitution to certain circumstances arising from the integration process). In September 2010, a group ofparliamentarians presented to the Parliament a proposal that would trigger the 8th constitutional amendmentprocess, interrupted in March 2011 following the dissolution of the XI Legislature; the early outcome of thisprocess does not obscure its theoretical importance, given the relevant reflections of the Provisional Committeefor Constitutional Amendment, which justify a review intended to complement a current perspective of thissubject.