Germany’s Europe Minister Comments on European Constitutional Referendums

Source: EUpolitix.com

Günter Gloser, Germany’s Europe minister considers the recent rejections of the European Constitution by voters in France and the Netherlands to be “accidental” and not an obstacle to EU progress.

Gloser was speaking at a launch of a book on the constitution, written by Jean-Claude Piris, the director-general council of the EU’s legal service.

While expressing that all members of the EU need the benefits that will come from the treaty, Gloser concluded that the outcome of the French and Dutch referendums would have been reversed if there was “more positive economic circumstances and better information about the treaty in both countries.”

Gloser stated that Germany is “against [implementing select sections that are uncontroversial]. We know that the treaty will fall apart if we begin—now or in the next months—to extract parts from the treaty and put them into force separately.”

He noted the upcoming elections in France and the Netherlands in the first part of 2007 as important in preventing “the constitutional treaty from being unraveled.”

The comments come ahead of Germany’s assumption of the EU presidency in January, when Berlin will assume the responsibilities of fixing the constitutional problems.