Parameters of constitutional development: The fiscal compact in between EU and member state constitutions

The answer to the questions whether the Lisbon Treaty is a quasi-constitutional framework to be revised, and whether the crisis is a matter for amending or just completing the Lisbon Treaty, depends on our understanding of what constitutional change is and entails. In this chapter, the boundaries of constitutional development are drawn broadly to encompass both the EU and the Member States constitutional orders. Also, not only the formal constitution, but also the substantive constitution is taken on board. This enables an analysis of one major response to the crisis, the Fiscal Compact contained in the Treaty on Stability, Coordination and Governance in the Economic and Monetary Union. This instrument is constitutionally located ‘in between’ the EU and the Member States, and is an excellent object for the type of study proposed. The chapter concludes that we are in the middle of constitutional change, which—once the dust has settled—may be codified and consolidated in the EU constitutional documents proper, in the style of ‘evolutionary constitutions’.