Preamble
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This article explains the general meaning of the term preamble; the article Data Preamble describes the preamble of a message transmission in a computer network.
Preamble (from Latin praeambulare "to precede"; via Middle Latin praeambulum "introduction") today refers to a mostly solemn declaration, written in elevated language, at the beginning of a document, especially a constitution or an international treaty. For example, the German Basic Law, the Federal Constitution of the Swiss Confederation and the Austrian State Treaty (1955) contain a preamble. Nowadays, it serves to describe the motives, intentions and purposes of its authors and reflects the respective basic consensus. In times of work on a European constitution, the mention of a special religious reference or an invocatio dei within the framework of the preamble is controversial.
Preambles at the level of European law
European law consists of the Treaties of the European Communities/European Union, the secondary sources based on them and the treaties of the Council of Europe. At least among the primary sources, no text is known not to contain a preamble, namely the Statute of the Council of Europe 1949 (EuRat), the European Convention on Human Rights 1950 (ECHR), the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community 1952 (ECSC), the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community 1957 (EAEC), the Treaty establishing the European Community 1957 (TEC) and the Treaty on European Union 1992 (TEU) contain extensive preambles. These preambles also contain the recitals of the respective legal acts and thus provide indications of their authentic interpretation.
In terms of content, the treaties emphasise the will of states and peoples to live together peacefully on the basis of common values and interests, in the first treaties still much more idealistic and euphoric - EuCouncil: 'spiritual and moral values which are the common heritage of the peoples', ECHR: 'deep belief in these fundamental freedoms', ECSC: world peace - than the EAEC does then, whose preamble is very much designed around the subject of nuclear energy, and finally the TEC, which in its objective, with a thoroughly visionary perspective - "to lay the foundations for an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe" - concentrates very strongly on the economic aspects on which it is based.
In contrast, the TEU, with its more general political content and influenced by the recent fall of the Iron Curtain, returns to the style of the founding years, follows its "commitment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law" with a commitment to fundamental social rights, environmental protection and sustainability, and announces a European citizenship, monetary union and a common foreign, security and defence policy (CFSP). The concept of a European identity is used.
A special feature of the draft European Constitutional Treaty is that it now has two preambles due to the complete incorporation of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The case law of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regularly uses the content of the preambles to the European Treaties as an aid to the interpretation of the law of articles.
