 The European Union's stalled constitution could undergo a name change as part of an attempt to rescue it after last year's rejection by French and Dutch voters, EU ministers said on Sunday.
| Good idea. Hang a false nose and moustache on it. No one will ever know. |
At a weekend meeting in Vienna, the bloc's foreign ministers acknowledged it was politically unfeasible to launch moves to save the charter, aimed at speeding European integration, until after French and Dutch general elections, due around next May.
However, Germany won guarded backing for an offer to launch a plan immediately afterwards to begin salvaging key parts of the text — possibly under a new name of a "basic law", the name of Germany's own constitution. "Everybody agrees it was a mistake to call it a constitution, so that would be a very sensible change if that were needed," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said, insisting his country nonetheless planned to become the 16th state to ratify the existing text later this year.
| Nobody seems to agree it's a bad idea except the people voting on it. |
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