Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, warned today that he would resign if his country becomes the third founding member state of the European Union to reject its new constitution. Luxembourg currently holds the rotating EU presidency - which passes to Britain on July 1, nine days before Luxembourgers vote on the treaty. For that reason, Mr Juncker has been deeply involved in co-ordinating Europe's response to the resounding rejection of the constitution by both Dutch and European voters in the past week. Ironically, his political survival might rest with the fact that many of the 14 European nations still to ratify the treaty are now coming round to the UK view - that that it would be best to shelve the ratification process while a solution is found to the EU crisis.
Mr Juncker was asked today if he stood by a comment made last year that he would resign if Luxembourg votes against the charter on July 10.
"It is a question of basic decency towards the voters of Luxembourg," Mr Juncker replied. "If there is a 'no', it is not the people who have to quit. It is up to me to go."
The French and Dutch 'no' votes appear to have fanned anti-European sentiment across the continent, including in Luxembourg, where opinion polls suggest that the constitution now risks defeat - inconceivable only a few months ago. Opinion polls in Denmark yesterday showed that the 'no' campaign has also taken the lead there for the first time, after a swing of 17 points in the last week.
Mr Juncker admitted that he was worried earlier this week, after a poll showed that the 'no' camp in Luxembourg had surged to 41 per cent from 24 per cent in October. "I will employ all my energy and all my determination to get the 'yes' through in Luxembourg ... I will commit myself with passion for a 'yes' and to unmask the populists," he said today. "The recent opinion polls do not suprise me."
Mr Juncker is one of the EU's long-serving leaders and head of one of the EU's six founder members. He is also the only European leader to have explicitly tied his personal future to the fate of the constitutional charter. President Chirac of France and Jan Peter Balkenende, Prime Minister of the Netherlands, whose countries have both voted no, have made no offer to quit. Instead, they insist that the process of ratification must continue. They want a June 16 EU summit, chaired by Mr Juncker, to reaffirm that.
Chancellor Schroeder of Germany, whose Parliament has already ratified the Consitution, agrees and is to meet M. Chirac in Berlin tomorrow to agree a common position. But other nations yet to hold referenda, including Ireland, Portugal and Denmark, are coming round to the British position, that there is no point going to the voters unless the treaty still has a realistic chance of coming into force, according to Anthony Browne, Europe Correspondent of The Times.
There was now a chance, Mr Browne added, that the June 16 summit could agree to shelve the ratification process until a way could be found for France and the Netherlands to ratify the treaty. As things stand, the treaty has to be ratified by all 25 nations in order to take effect.
"There has been a significant movement because a lot of the other countries having referenda are having doubts about them," Browne said. |