What will happen to the EU now that the constitution has been defeated?
The rejection, by voters in two of the largest and previously most EU-enthusiastic founder members of the EU, is undoubtedly a great psychological blow to proponents of European integration. However, there is no likelihood at all of them readily accepting the message of the voters. Previous ‘no’ votes – in Denmark in 2002 over the Maastricht Treaty and Ireland’s 2001 rejection of the Nice Treaty – were simply subjected to cosmetic changes and re-submitted to the electorate until the ‘correct’ vote was obtained. Interviewed in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir in the week before the French referendum, Jean-Claude Juncker (Prime Minister of Luxembourg, which holds the EU Presidency) left open the possibility that similar tactics might be employed in the case of the constitution when he said “the countries that have said ‘no’ will have to ask themselves the question again.” Even if the scale of the rejection of the constitution makes its formal resuscitation impossible, pro-European elites ar
