Summary

The article discusses the Estonian Constitutional Expert Committee’s recent report on the potential implications of EU accession for the Estonian constitutional law. The article makes four main suggestions. First, the independence and sovereignty concept used during the First Estonian Republic in the 30s needs revisiting in the context of the EU and globalisation processes. Second, democratic representation does not necessarily belong inherently to a nation and part of it may be legitimately exercised through the European Parliament. Third, the Expert Committee’s approach to the pre-EU-accession integration period seems to contradict its rather conservative attitude to implications of the EU membership: under the Europe Agreement and other conditionality documents, Estonia is committed to the extensive unilateral harmonisation of its law to another legal system in the formation of which it has no say and which, as shown by a recent decision of the Hungarian Constitutional Court, may, to some extent, be directly applicable in the Estonian legal order at present already. The author suggests that harmonisation and other accession conditions require authorisation by the people through a constitutional amendment effected by a referendum. Finally, democratic control over the integration process and accession negotiations needs to be enhanced.