Phantom Polish plumber poor excuse for "No" to Constitution

The European Constitution lies in tatters this week after being comprehensively ripped to shreds by voters in France and the Netherlands. The Constitution is fundamentally about adapting the EU to a Union of 25 countries - and for many sceptics, the referendums were an opportunity to express their fears about the recent enlargement. But were they justified in doing so?

Photo: CTK

There are a multitude of reasons why French and Dutch voters rejected the Constitution this week, but in France, "No" campaigners raised the spectre of the "Polish plumber" - the influx of cheap labour from the new members of Central and Eastern Europe. However many observers say the move was a highly cynical one. Sebestyen Gorka is a Budapest based political scientist.

"There are people who go from Central Europe to the West to work, but in the vast majority of cases, these people go back to the country from whence they came. They earn money and they take it back physically. Few of them actually up sticks and stay in Western Europe. This is not the mentality, this is not the tradition of Central Europe. On the flip side there is the far more burning issue for Western countries that given the demographics, given the low birth rate, the increase in pension age, that the Western nations, especially France, but also Germany and the UK, need to allow immigrant labour in, especially labour that pays taxes. Because otherwise, their welfare states are on a suicide dive to insolvency."

And go out on the streets of Prague, and you'll find dismay and bafflement at the "Polish plumber" argument put forward by the "No" camp.

"It's not true. French and Germans needn't be afraid of this invasion of labour, because especially Czech people are very attached to their country. I don't believe them that many of them would leave the country to work in Germany or in France."

Photo: European Commission

Others told me the Constitution was written in such an obscure way that neither the French nor the Dutch had any real idea what they voting for.

"I think they don't know too much about the Constitution. Because some people speak about the problem of the Polish manufacturers, but the Constitution gives no new rights to these manufacturers - there's no shift, no change under the new Constitution. This is proof that they hadn't read it, and I understand it because it has - in my edition - 250 pages."

So what lessons can be drawn in Brussels from this highly traumatic week? Well, the answer of this woman doing her shopping in the centre of Prague could hold the key.

"I know that in Europe people don't like to hear about America, but I think they have a perfect document. Everyone can understand it. If I can understand it, I can say Yes. But I don't understand it. It's too difficult, so I think the mistake is there. Make a new programme, a new document, and speak about it a lot, and make it not so difficult."