Thursday

28th Mar 2024

Opinion

Putting the Constitution to a referendum

It is likely that the UK Government will declare its intention to become the ninth EU Member State planning a referendum on the European Constitution. As there is no doubt that a Constitution adopted against the will of its citizens is doomed to failure, a public vote is a welcome step forward.

…a future cacophony in the EU?

However, holding a referendum is of itself not enough. Experience shows that if citizens of a country refuse a treaty at a first poll, they are ordered to re-ballot a couple of years later, so as to "get the answer right".

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Indeed if a country did not do this, it would in effect hold the rest of the Union hostage - hardly democratic given that it deprives hundreds of millions of citizens in other EU countries the right to choose, or refuse, the same text. In both cases citizens would rightly feel swindled of their influence.

Learning from experience…

It is thus vital to learn from this past experience, and to give the voters a real choice which they will not be asked to re-vote upon, and which does not allow one country to stop the show. The choice should be:

- either Membership of the new EU with Constitution,

- or immediate secession from the EU.

…and drawing on example

Member States could reinforce this provision with the inclusion of a "Spinelli clause" in the final text of the Constitution. This would echo his Draft Treaty on European Union, by stating that the Constitution is adopted if two thirds of the existing Member States, representing two thirds of the EU's population approve it.

Any countries seceding can negotiate to maintain their access to markets as is required in international law, but cannot prevent the entry into force of the Constitution.

…so we can all vote together

Moreover, given the importance of the EU Constitution, a new method of adoption should be considered: holding the national referenda simultaneously in those countries that wish to vote.

In this way, if the Constitution survives, it will appropriately be born of pan-European legitimacy.

Adrian Taylor is Director, Public Sector Strategy, at Think Tools GmbH, based in Munich, Germany. He is also a Research Associate at the EU Centre of the University System of Georgia, in Atlanta, USA

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author's, not those of EUobserver.

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