Indeed, from the start, the architects of the Union's Constitutional Treaty never seriously expected that their draft would endure in the form in which they wrote it. Instead, they saw themselves as following Europe's long established pattern of step-by-step integration.
事实上，欧州宪法条约的设计者从一开始就没有真的期望他们的草案会保留下去，相反，他们把自己看作是欧洲长期形成的"一步一步综合"模式的追随者。