LONDON - The European Union's first ever constitution cannot be re-negotiated if French voters reject the document in a referendum, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing said Thursday.Giscard d'Estaing, who chaired the convention which drafted the constitution, described re-negotiation of the treaty as "impossible" and said there was
Polls have consistently shown that France is split down the middle over how to vote in its widely watched referendum on May 29. Surveys have also shown many French opponents believe it is possible to draft a better constitution, and hope to send the message that they want leaders to return to the drawing board.
Campaigners have not cleared up the confusion. French President Jacques Chirac has warned that there is no chance the treaty could be re-negotiated if France votes "no." However former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius, a leading opponent and the No. 2 Socialist Party official, insisted on French television over the weekend, saying that a re-negotiation was possible. Giscard d'Estaing said re-negotiation would be a "useless and nonproductive confrontation" and added, "I think for a long while nothing could be done.
| And does that tell you something? No? |
Blair suggested last month that a French rejection could scuttle the constitution and make a British vote pointless. "If there is still a constitution there has got to be a referendum on it," he said last month. "If what was to happen was France was to say 'no' and then the rest of Europe were to tear up the constitution and say 'we're forgetting about it,' you wouldn't have a referendum on nothing."
| I'm betting Tony hits his knees every night praying that the French get him off the hook on this one. |