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| Europe |
| Poland deals new blow to wounded EU constitution |
| 2005-06-07 |
| EFL: Poland dealt a fresh blow to the European Union's wounded constitution on Tuesday, saying it may delay a planned referendum despite efforts by France, which voted against the charter first, to keep the treaty alive. Aleksander Kwasniewski, president of the bloc's largest new member, said he might put off the vote from his favored October date if next week's EU summit took no decision on the fate of the constitution. Poland should not set a date until the bloc had discussed the crisis caused by the rejection of the charter by French and Dutch voters, he told public radio in an interview, noting Britain had just shelved plans to hold its own referendum. Kwasniewski raised the prospect that EU leaders might either decide on June 16-17 to call a pause in ratification, or fail to agree on any joint way forward. "(At the summit) we may decide to give ourselves a few months and meet (again) when we are better prepared," he said. "A lack of a decision is also a decision." Opinion polls in countries such as Denmark, Poland and even Luxembourg, which plan to hold referendums, have shown a sharp swing toward the "No" camp since the French and Dutch results, threatening more governments with a humiliating defeat. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #22 "And we would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for those meddling voters!" |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-06-07 23:57 |
| #21 Nah, he's busted... And he blamed the Dutch vote on the "difficulties" of the Durch political system" people=difficulties |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 23:52 |
| #20 I thought Giscard is too busy sitting for his marble bust (the one they'll install at the entrance to the sauna in Brussels) to sign autographs? |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2005-06-07 23:33 |
| #19 plus an autograph of Giscard! |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 22:17 |
| #18 Thanks, but no thanks, #8 TGA. What does the loser get, 2 copies? ;-p |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-06-07 22:14 |
| #17 Actually the word "European peoples" is mentioned once, after 300 words... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 22:07 |
| #16 "It's just pining for the fijords." |
| Posted by: Mark E. 2005-06-07 21:30 |
| #15 I'll guess 1, 1, and "None of the Above", Alex, er, TGA. I know the King of the Belgians is right up front though. |
| Posted by: Tom 2005-06-07 20:21 |
| #14 'Soviet'? |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-06-07 20:13 |
| #13 How many times does 'peasants' show up? |
| Posted by: ed 2005-06-07 20:10 |
| #12 Ok, next question: How often does the word "people" appear in this 700 plus first sentence of the Constitution? 1) not at all 2) 5 times 3) 10 times 4) 20 times How often does the word "peoples" appear in these 700 plus sentence? 1) not at all 2) one time 3) 10 times 4) 20 times Assuming, the word people or peoples does appear in the first sentence, after how many words? (English version) 1) It's within the first ten words 2) Within the first 50 words 3) within the first 200 words 4) None of the above |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 19:32 |
| #11 Who wrote it? James Joyce? |
| Posted by: BH 2005-06-07 19:26 |
| #10 Yes even the grammar check of MS Word recognizes that |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 19:23 |
| #9 In my day they called that a run-on sentence |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-07 19:21 |
| #8 You win a free copy, Barbara... sorry, postage not included :-) In the German version it's over 800 words... English is just a bit shorter and don't ask me about the French... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 19:17 |
| #7 This is just a guess (though, knowing the Eunicrats, an educated one), but I'll take what's behind Door #4, |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-06-07 18:45 |
| #6 Trivial Pursuit Question How many words does the first sentence of the EU Constitution have? 1) 12 2) 24 3) 36 4) over 700 |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 17:58 |
| #5 Even Poland wants to give this thing a kick before it finally dies. I love it. |
| Posted by: bigjim-ky 2005-06-07 12:58 |
| #4 I think he had second thoughts about the time the EU announced the new sales tax they want. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-06-07 11:58 |
| #3 It's just "resting"... |
| Posted by: True German Ally 2005-06-07 11:21 |
| #2 It's gonna take a wooden stake, or a silver bullet. |
| Posted by: Rafael 2005-06-07 10:52 |
| #1 What? The constitution isn't dead yet? Finish it off already! *BANG!* |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-06-07 10:38 |