What people are saying around Europe:
This is the same as the European Constitution
Germany
“The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact.”
(Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, Telegraph, 29 June 2007)
Spain
“We have not let a single substantial point of the Constitutional Treaty go...
It is, without a doubt, much more than a treaty.
This is a project of foundational character, a treaty for a new Europe.”
(Jose Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister, speech, 27 June 2007)
Ireland
‘~90 per cent of it is still there.., these changes haven’t made any dramatic
change to the substance of what was agreed back in 2004.”
(Bertie Ahern, Irish Taoiseach, Irish Independent, 24 June 2007)
Czech Republic
“Only cosmetic changes have been made and the basic document remains the same.”
(Vaclav Klaus, Czech President, Guardian, 13 June 2007)
Finland
“There’s nothing from the original institutional package that has been changed.”
(Astnd Thors, Finnish Europe Minister, TV-Nytt, 23 June 2007)
Denmark
“The good thing is.. .that all the symbolic elements are gone, and that which really matters - the core - is left.”
(Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister, Jyuands-Posten, 25 June 2007)
Austria
“The original Treaty for a Constitution was maintained in substance.”
(Austrian government website, 25 June 2007)
Belgium
The new treaty “takes up the most important elements of the Constitutional Treaty
project.”
(Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister, Agence Europe, 24 June 2007)
Italy
“As for our conditions... I outlined four red tines with respect to the text of the
Constitution: to keep a permanent president of the EU, to keep the single overseer
for foreign policy and a common diplomatic service, to keep the extension of majority voting,
to keep the single legal personality of the Union. Alt of this has stayed.”
(Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister, La Repubblica, 24 June 2007)
Lithuania
Lithuania has “100 percent fulfilled the tasks set forth before the meeting,
including the primary objective of preserving the substance of the Constitutional
Treaty.”
(Office of the President of Lithuania, official press release)
Luxembourg
“The substance has been preserved from Luxembourg’s point of view.”
(Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister, Agence Europe, 24 June)
Slovenla
With the new treaty, the EU gets “content that is not essentially different from the
Constitutional Treaty... All key institutional solutions remain... Some symbolic
elements will be cleared up and some formulations toned down.”
(Janez Jansa, Stovenian Prime Minister, Government Communication Office, 23
June 2007)
The author of the EU Constitution
“This text is, in fact, a rerun of a great part of the substance of the Constitutional
Treaty.”
(Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Telegraph, 27 June 2007)
European Parliament
The European Parliament “welcomes the fact that the mandate safeguards the
substance of the Constitutional Treaty.”
(European Parliament resolution, 10 July 2007)
The European Commission
“It’s essentially the same proposal as the old Constitution.”
(Margot Wallstrom, EU Commissioner, Svenska Dagbladet, 26 June 2007)
The UK Government
“The new reform treaty is fundamentally different from the Constitution, its not a
Constitution.”
(David Miliband, UK Foreign Secretary,BBC Today programme, 16 October 2007)
Is this an honest process?
Giscard d’Estalng
“Public opinion will be Led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we
dare not present to them directly” ... “All the earlier proposals will be in the new text,
but wilt be hidden and disguised in some way.”
(Le Monde, 14 June 2007 and Sunday Telegraph, 1 July 2007)
Former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato
“They decided that the document should be unreadable. If it is unreadable, it is not
Constitutional, that was the sort of perception... Should you succeed in understanding
it at first sight there might be some reason for a referendum, because it would
mean that there is something new.”
(CER meeting, 12 July 2007)
Karel de Gucht, Belgian Foreign Minister
“The aim of the Constitutional Treaty was to be more readable; the aim of this
treaty is to be unreadable... The Constitution aimed to be clear, whereas this treaty
had to be unclear. It is a success.”
(Flandreinfo, 23 June 2007)
Jean Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg
“Britain is different. Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I
be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?” (Telegraph, 3 July 2007)
www.openeurope.org.uk