European constitutional identity in the light of EU enlargement

This paper intends to take as its starting point the constitutional changes in EU candidate states with the aim of framing them in the debate on the relationship between constitutional identity, national identity and European integration. The subject of constitutional changes in EU Member States is not distinct, in substantive terms, from that of the changes required of the states that wish to join it. Nor is their accession process and especially not their entry neutral in terms of defining the characteristics of European integration. In fact, the integration process is in constant flux, continually evolving and involving the supranational order and the states that help determine it. It is neither static nor closed, it is not fully defined, and its intrinsic and inevitable openness also keeps the systems of the participatory states open and dynamic.