UK must not block Progress

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 28th May 2003

In a new proposal to the Convention, European Liberal Democrat spokesman Andrew Duff has proposed a modification of the procedure to bring the Constitution into force.

Mr Duff argues that the Constitution is unlikely to receive favourable ratification in all 25 member states of the Union. Under existing arrangements (Article 48 of the Treaty on European Union) a refusal in any one country will block the project for all. The Praesidium has merely proposed that a meeting of the European Council should take place if and when it is faced with the rejection of the Constitution by one or more member states. Mr Duff is critical of the lack of a "realistic contingency plan".

He proposes that, in such a crisis, the European Council should convene a new intergovernmental conference with a precise and exclusive mandate to re-negotiate the Constitution's provisions for its own entry into force. All countries would have to commit themselves in the Constitution to holding the new conference in good faith, as well as to the ratification of any modified procedure for bringing the Constitution into force.

Mr Duff also makes proposals for any future revision of the Constitution to be achieved by a five-sixths majority of the member states. And he repeats his earlier proposal for a new-style associate membership of the EU for any member state that proves unable or unwilling to accept the whole constitutional package.

In a statement today, Andrew Duff says:

"Past form indicates that the passage of the Constitution into force will not be smooth, especially as more and more countries are choosing to have referenda. The Convention should be more creative at avoiding the likely paralysis imposed on us by the existing Treaty.

"If the Union is to enjoy a proper constitutional order it has to relax the dual national veto which insists not only on unanimity in the IGC but also on uniformity of ratification. No federal system can work if its constitutional development can always be held hostage by only one or two of its members.

"I am all for a referendum in Britain about whether or not to accept the re-founded Union - but only so long as the British accept that we do not have the moral right to veto European unification for everyone else."