Anticipating the result of France's upcoming EU constitution referendum
At the end of the month, the whole of Europe will be watching France, where a crucial referendum will be taking place to ratify the European Union constitution. But while French President Jacques Chirac, with the help of other European leaders including Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, have been busy promoting the constitution in France, opinion polls show just as many French would vote against it as for it.
Radio Slovakia International discussed the challenges the EU faces with the ratification process and future enlargement with the former president of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, who was in Bratislava to encourage Slovak businessmen to face the challenges posed by EU membership:
"From my experience I know that after each enlargement process, we face some problems that last for at least one generation. So we cannot make an assessment after only one year. It was a good and successful year but we have to go ahead now in the development and come to the constitution."
Well, we come to the constitution and discover that politicians have a different view on this document in comparison to ordinary citizens.
"With 15 member states we came to the limit of the possibility that the Union can function properly because the institutions were conceived for a union with only six member states. With an enlargement to 9, 12, 15, 25, and tomorrow 27 member states, you cannot function properly without a profound reform of the institutions. Therefore, this constitution is necessary if you want this Union to be managed properly and efficiently. Europe also has to play its political role on the international scene. With a GDP worldwide of 25% we have to take also our political responsibility to an international level."
It seems that the French disagree.
"You know [laughs] General de Gaulle said once in his memoir that if you hold a referendum, the people who have to vote with "yes" or "no", they don't give an answer to the question, they give an answer to those who put the question forward and that's the problem in France. There are some other referenda, such as that one in the UK. If this referendum will be negative, we can deal with the UK because the UK doesn't want political union like it is but they want a big market of course, a bigger trading zone and they also want to have, and this is important for us too, a common defence policy. There we can manage something. I think there we could find a solution.
"With France it would be more difficult. France is a founding member and we have to be aware that the whole construction of the European Union is founded on the reconciliation between France and Germany. That's a pillar of the European Union and if this pillar would crash, then the Union would split and that's the real danger with France."
