Uk closer to referendum on eu constitution

A total of eight countries – including the Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, Belgium and Denmark – have already said they are certain or likely to hold referendums on the constitution after it is agreed at heads of government level, probably in June.

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A decision by the UK to hold a referendum could have a big impact across the EU, in particular adding to pressure on French President Jacques Chirac to do the same.

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A commitment to hold a referendum is a risky one for Mr Blair. The implacable opposition of the Conservatives and the tabloid press to the prospective new constitution makes a government defeat a real possibility.

This could damage the government at the start of its third term and undermine the British presidency of the EU in the second half of 2005.

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The move would be Blair’s hardest policy U-turn since coming to power and would put other member states – notably France – under pressure to follow suit

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Jacques Chirac, French president, is also under pressure to put the constitution to a referendum. Like Mr Blair, he fears he could lose such a poll.

Financial Times,

April 19, 2004

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The new voting system

The six founding members of the European Union – Belgium, France Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – are the most ardent supporters of the draft constitution.

Heather Grabbe, the director of research at the Center for European Reform in London, says the new voting system means that "there will be a lot more friction in the whole way of doing business."

The question, "Who’s side are you on?" becomes of greater importance on any given issue, she said.

Yet in the weeks leading up to the summit meeting, there has been very little disagreement over the need for more voting.

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Poland and spain on voting

The main dispute has centered on how those votes would be weighted.

Poland and Spain appeared unchanged Thursday in their opposition to the proposed constitution. Both countries benefit disproportionately from the current voting system.

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"Realistically speaking, today it is very difficult to see reasonably a compromise," President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland said in Berlin after talks with Chancellor Gerhard Schröder of Germany. News agencies quoted Schröder as castigating the Poles for their hard-line stance.

"You can’t want to be a new member of the European Union and want to announce your arrival with a veto," he said, according to Agence France-Presse.

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Spain’s foreign minister, Ana Palacio, also held her ground Thursday, saying on France’s Europe 1 Radio that Spain "cannot accept the current proposal."

Prodi, the president of the EU commission, however, criticized Spain and Poland, saying that the EU "cannot abandon the basic principles of democracy."

The proposed constitution calls for a mathematical voting system where each country's power is weighted according to its population.

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Madrid and Warsaw are hoping to stick with a voting system negotiated three years ago in Nice, where Spain and Poland won the right to 27 votes each, compared to 29 for Germany, which has double their population.

"How can we explain a points-based system to European citizens," Prodi said at a press conference here. "Is that democracy?"

Prodi said one possible compromise would be to delay the implementation of the new system. But he sided with France and Germany in rejecting the idea that a decision could be postponed far into the future, saying there should be "no leftovers." Prodi was against hurrying up and proposal to wait till 2005.

The guardian,