| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| French to vote on EU constitution |
| 2004-07-14 |
| Sarah Left and agencies /Guardian Newspapers Limited Wednesday July 14th, 2004 France is to hold a referendum on the proposed EU constitution, the country’s president, Jacques Chirac, announced today. Mr Chirac used Bastille Day to announce that voters would be given the chance to accept or reject the constitution in the second half of 2005. "The French people are concerned directly and will therefore be consulted directly, and so there will be a referendum," he said in a television interview. European leaders agreed on a draft constitution at a summit last month and gave member states until the end of 2006 to ratify the document, either by parliamentary vote or referendum. Countries besides France to have said they will hold referendums are the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Luxembourg, Spain, the Czech Republic and Denmark; others will hold parliamentary votes, while others still remain undecided. A referendum poses far less of a danger to Mr Chirac than it does to the British prime minister, Tony Blair, who has also promised the public a vote on the constitution: opinion polls have shown the French public to be generally in favour of the EU constitution; in the UK attitudes are far more mixed. In last month’s European parliamentary elections, the anti-EU party Ukip went from holding two seats to 12. Observers expect Mr Blair to wait as long as possible before putting the controversial document to a vote, perhaps pushing a referendum well into 2006. If any of the other 24 member states reject the constitution, Mr Blair will be spared the trouble of a referendum in the UK, as the constitution requires unanimous approval. |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |