European leaders were on Thursday night inching towards accepting that the EU Constitution has been all but killed off by the double rejection of French and Dutch voters.
A series of emergency talks was launched by key figures in the EU establishment amid divisions over whether the ratification process should continue.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who holds the rotating EU presidency and who was said to have been on the verge of tears when he heard news of the Dutch vote, summoned Gerhard Schröder for emergency talks. As the German chancellor travelled to the Grand Duchy, the Elysée Palace announced that Jacques Chirac would fly to Berlin tomorrow to discuss the crisis.
Such stalwarts of Old Europe, who issued bleak statements on Wednesday night after 61% of Dutch voters said no to the Constitution, are still insisting in public that ratification must continue.
As he prepared to fly home, Schröder tried to calm the atmosphere: ”Ratification must continue. We must decide what to do at the end of that process. Every form of overreaction at this stage is wrong.”
But the first cracks in this front appeared on Thursday when Jose Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, pointedly refrained from calling for ratification to continue. ”We’re in a period of reflection,” he said.
His officials went even further in private as they expressed sympathy with Britain, which wants to postpone its referendum. ”A pause is very realistic, we have to recognise the realities,” one official said.
Britain will underline the depth of the crisis on Monday when Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, announces that the government is to put on hold legislation needed before a British referendum. With a wounded French president in no mood to give Britain an easy ride, Straw will use sensitive language.
In his statement to MPs he will probably avoid the word ”suspend” when discussing the Bill, which has already been introduced and would otherwise have received its Commons second reading within weeks. He will certainly not ”withdraw” it.
His exact language is still under discussion between the British Foreign Office and No 10, where enthusiasm for a yes vote was always stronger than the once-Eurosceptic Straw’s.
Ministers want to tread carefully because they do not want to weaken the position of Britain and other countries from New Europe when European leaders discuss the crisis at a Brussels summit on June 16. British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to ask Chirac and Jan Peter Balkenende, the Dutch prime minister, whether they intend to put the Constitution to a second vote — the only chance of reviving the measure.
British sources believe the two leaders will eventually have to say no, guaranteeing the death of the treaty and no need for a referendum in Britain.
But this could take months, leaving Britain to handle the crisis when it assumes the EU presidency on July 1. Many officials, who are determined to take a firm grip on the crisis, fear little progress by Christmas, when the next summit occurs.
Blair, who is on holiday in Tuscany, on Thursday spoke to his Dutch counterpart, who later made clear that he is unlikely to try to reverse his country’s no vote. ”We have to listen seriously to the feelings of the Dutch people and — while recognising that we don’t oppose Europe — accept that there are doubts about the entire process,” Balkenende said.
Britain will welcome his remarks, but ministers know they will face a tough time at the European summit, not least because Chirac believes that the so-called Anglo-Saxon economic model is largely to blame for the no vote. Fears that Chirac may try to create an EU ”inner core” were fuelled on Thursday by the announcement of his Berlin trip.
The EU’s two heavyweights will be keen to agree a common position ahead of the summit in Brussels and before Britain takes over the EU presidency. ”I am convinced that we need the constitution if we want a democratic, social-minded and strong Europe,” Schröder said.
His remarks show that some leaders may try to retrieve parts of the Constitution, even if it is pronounced dead. But Britain’s Europe minister, Douglas Alexander, rejected suggestions that parts of the treaty — such as a full-time president — could be implemented.
”That denies the reality that this was extremely hard fought over by the 25 members all seeking to advance their national interest,” said Alexander as the no campaign insisted that ministers go ahead with the referendum next year precisely in order to stop it being introduced piecemeal instead.
The former Labour leader and EU commissioner, Lord Kinnock, put it more bluntly. ”There is no point in having a pretend vote on a pretend treaty,” he said. – Guardian Unlimited Â