The French president Jacques Chirac on Thursday refused to commit to holding a referendum on the EU’s controversial new constitution, but joined forces with one of his predecessors to say a ”no” vote in Britain would not mean it would have to leave the club.
In a rare televised press conference he sought to persuade a sceptical French audience of the benefits of tomorrow’s unprecedented ”big bang” enlargement of the EU by 10 new countries.
He stated the move was a ”giant step” which would see Europe asserting itself as ”a first-class economic power” leading to growth and employment.
In a public appearance, all the more keenly awaited after rumours of his private fury at Tony Blair’s u-turn on a referendum, the French leader insisted he would make no public comment on the prime minister’s ”political choice.”
But he added: ”I don’t imagine that England could find itself in the situation of having to leave Europe.”
Chirac’s predecessor, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the architect of the constitution, agreed that a British ”no” vote would not mean the country’s withdrawal from the EU.
However he echoed many pro-European cheerleaders in warning that if Britons did reject the treaty, the country would be ”on the edge” although not outside the EU.
”If finally the British said no and the other Europeans said ‘we want to go’ then they will have to find an accommodation. In that case Britain will not be in the core of the system but at the margin.”
Giscard insisted the draft text did not breach the British government’s”red lines” on foreign policy, defence, taxation and other matters.
During talks on the referendum decision with Blair in London on Wednesday, the two agreed that the priority was ”to address the fears of voters”, Giscard told a group of journalists.
”It is appropriate to have a referendum,” he said. ”You cannot build Europe against the people. It will not last. If you try to impose something on them, they will refuse one way or another. It is better to check what their will is.”
Chirac did his best to duck the question of a French referendum, saying an option was a joint vote of both the National Assembly and the Senate. ”It is too early to decide on one or the other option,” he said.
Every one of the EU’s members — 25 from tomorrow — has to ratify the treaty. Failure in just one — especially a large country like Britain or France, would mean disaster and disarray.
But it was the president’s remarks about Turkey that caused the widest ripples.
The question of whether it should be given the green light to start long-awaited membership talks has to be decided by the end of this year and is likely to figure in the European election campaigns in both France and Germany.
Polls show a slim majority of French back both the constitution and enlargement, but they also highlight resentment over perceptions that the EU’s future is being decided without them.
The accession of eight eastern European countries, with Malta and Cyprus, seals the dominance of the English language over French, changes the political and economic dynamic of the union and puts further pressure on the subsidies cherished by French farmers.
”My conviction is that Turkey has a European vocation, but that its entry into the union is possible only under conditions which have not, today, been brought together,” Chirac said.
”Let’s be clear — if conditions allow the negotiations to start at the beginning of next year, we have to know that these negotiations will be long, very long.”
Giscard caused greater controversy two years ago when he said even more forcefully that an EU with Turkey as a member would no longer be the EU. It is clear that on this key issue, there is a good deal of fog in the Channel.
In a Le Monde article on Wednesday, Blair wrote that he believed Turkey should be allowed to start talks.
Britain, backing the US, says Turkish EU membership is a strategic imperative that should also help heal tensions between Islam and the west. – Guardian Unlimited Â