| Spain, France pledge active role on EU constitution |
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| World Affairs Talk | |
| Wednesday, 06 June 2007 | |
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Both countries agree on almost everything and esteem the content of the treaty. President Sarkozy's visit to Spain aims to clarify France's eagerness for the two countries to "work together" on moving ahead. Sarkozy also expressed his willingness to reach an accord in respect of the EU Constitution as soon as possible and vowed to do everything necessary for Europe to march forward. Sarkozy, who took office last month (May 2007), right away pushed for a scaled-down version of the treaty that aims to modernize the ‘decision-making’ process in the block which grew from 15 to 27 member countries in two waves of extension since 2004. Sarkozy expressed that France had not yet made its own draft, but a proposal for content would be tabled by the German European Union presidency very soon; German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the other hand is trying to get member states to reach an agreement at the 21-22 June summit and wants it to be ratified before European Parliament elections in 2009. French and Dutch voters rejected the European constitution in 2005 referendums, but the current French President Sarkozy now wants to trim the treaty down, while Spain opposes reducing it to a technical document emptied of political content; Spain was the first country to vote in favor of a constitution for the enlarged EU in a referendum in February 2005. After a two-year standoff, the Spanish government now says, it will accept a simplified treaty that preserves the essence of the original constitution, including the creation of a full-time EU president and foreign minister, and a new population based voting system. Both Spain and France expressed confidence that the 27 member European Union block will reach a consensus soon; if possible, why not in this month’s summit? Share & Bookmark             |
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