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Chirac seeks ratify or quit clause for EU constitution
Jacques Chirac, the French president, has put renewed pressure on Tony Blair over the proposed new European Union constitution by arguing that any state that fails to ratify it within two years of signature must quit the EU.As the EU prepares to greet ten new members tomorrow in its biggest ever act of enlargement, Mr Chirac told reporters in Paris that he backed a proposal for a "ratify or quit" clause to be written into the text of the constitutional treaty which is expected to be concluded by heads of government in June. Mr Chirac's comments come ten days after Mr Blair surprised the political establishment and his EU partners by pledging a referendum on the constitution, which many commentators believe would be hard to win. Mr Chirac told a press conference in Paris that a "ratify or quit" clause was "obviously a rather blunt guillotine blade". But the president added: "It is perhaps a positive solution. It ought to be negotiated into the constitution. I am not against the idea that there should be an instrument for friendly pressure on countries that reject the constitution because, at the moment they do, they'll block all the others."
The officials said they expected the proposal to be tabled next month in the final stages of talks on the treaty but were confident it would be rejected by the UK and other member states seeking to hold such a referendum. "This isn't negotiable," said one Whitehall figure. "There are several EU governments - for example the Netherlands - which would not want to be in the position of having to contemplate leaving the Union if they lost the referendum." Nevertheless, the UK officials conceded that Mr Chirac's call for a "ratify or quit" clause was a sign of how serious the stakes could be for the UK's future in Europe if there was a No vote in a British referendum.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-04-30 |
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