By Bruno Waterfield - 26th June 2006
The European constitution lives after “accidental” referendum rejections in France and the Netherlands Germany’s Europe minister Günter Gloser said on Tuesday.
Berlin takes over the stalled constitution project with an EU presidency that begins in January 2007.
Gloser has made it clear that Germany regards French and Dutch referendums as an inconvenience rather than a barrier to progress.
"It is… clear to all member states that we urgently need the improvements which the treaty contains,” he said.
“In view of the various possibilities of putting into force the treaty's provisions even after two negative referenda, one cannot conclude otherwise than that the treaty is alive.”
Berlin is arguing – controversially – that the French non and Dutch nee were not true rejections but a combination of negative economic factors and ignorance.
“The constitutional treaty is alive,” he insisted. “It was not the treaty which was rejected by a large proportion of those in France and the Netherlands who voted non or nee. Other reasons determined their choice.”
“More positive economic circumstances and with better information about the treaty in both countries, the referenda would probably have resulted with oui and ja . This shows that we can and must stick to this treaty.”
The social democrat minister was speaking at the launch of a book on the constitution by the director-general council of the EU’s legal service Jean-Claude Piris.
Piris ran a top-level group of national legal experts to transform the original EU constitution text into a workable treaty – now killed by French and Dutch no votes.
Gloser favourably quotes Piris as dismissing the French and Dutch votes as “an accident” in the EU inexorable drive to integration and after constitution ratification in 15 member states.
“In view of what the EU has achieved to date, the recent accident in the ratification process of the constitution of Europe, though a serious setback, will not dismantle these deeply rooted and noble foundations.”
“The European project will continue its patient building up,” he said, quoting the Piris book.
Gloser and the German EU presidency is working towards a “roadmap” setting Europe’s constitution path in June 2007 – a document that will coincide with key national elections.
“We must give consideration to the fact that in important member states –France and the Netherlands – there will be elections in the first half of the year 2007,” he said.
Nevertheless, we want to give a new impulse to the constitutional project. We want to prevent the constitutional treaty from being unravelled.”
Berlin is against arguments – predominantly from some in France – that the EU could “cherry pick” uncontroversial institutional parts of the constitution.
“The Federal government is against ‘cherry picking. We know that the treaty will fall apart if we begin - now or in the next months - to extract parts from the treaty and put them into force separately,” said Gloser.
“The treaty constitutes a whole and represents a good compromise.”
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