The assumption of this paper is that with the launch of the Convention created by the Declaration of the December 2001 European Council of Laeken, a "constituent" process for the European Union is in place. What does this imply for the Italian system? What kind of relationship can be envisaged between the Italian and the European legal orders? What of the role for the Constitutional Court? Are the constitutional instruments regulating the Italian participation in European construction appropriate? These are some of the questions that this paper will try to address in the following pages. In the first part, some of the elements which might contribute to define the current process as "constituent" will be emphasized; in the second part, the particular relationship between the Italian and EU systems, as well as the peculiar relationship (or non-relationship) between the Constitutional Court on one side, and the European Court of justice on the other, will be recalled in order to address the questions surrounding the novelty represented by the Constitutional Court's decision 135/2002; finally, some points of reflection concerning the constitutional treatment of the Italian participation in the European process of integration and the role of the Constitutional Court will be suggested
