"The drafting of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights in 2000 was a key episode in the ongoing process of constitutionalizing the European Union. The Convention method was used for the first time, a public debate about the fundamentals of European integration was institutionalized and questions about the purpose and nature of the EU polity were raised. This book places the creation of the Charter in the wider context of the Union's search for legitimacy and asks what the Charter and its process have contributed to making the EU more legitimate. Drawing on a unique body of empirical data from the Convention, the book shows the extent to which the later constitutional process was already anticipated by the Charter debates."--Jacket.