Long trudge back to drawing board

Attempting to understand the underlying reasons for the emphatic verdict from the French, Jo Leinen, president of the European Parliament’s Constitutional Affairs Committee said: ‘‘In France we have seen a plebiscite on the Chirac government rather than a referendum about the European constitution.’’ There are many here who share his views and some have already come out strongly against the verdict. EU constitutional expert Richard Corbett, a spokesman of the 201-strong European Parliament Socialist Group on constitutional affairs, said: ‘‘France alone cannot decide for the whole of Europe’’, and pointed out that nine countries had already said ‘yes’ and only one had said ‘no’.

While no one appears to be clear on what the future course of action would be, the President of the European Parliament, Borrell Fontelles, the president of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the president of the EC, Jose Manuel Barroso said in a joint statement on Monday: ‘‘We regret this choice, which comes from a member state that for 50 years has been an essential driving force in the constitution of our common future.’’ They added, ‘‘We are aware of the difficulties, but are confident that we will again find the means to move the EU forward’’.

The fact that most voters would not have understood the various provisions in the constitution could be indicated from the fact that the draft constitution takes 300 pages and includes 436 clauses. Most would have banked on politicians and evidently, Henri Emmanuelli, a former ruling Socialist member, had been able to turn the tables in less than two months when polls had showed that the ‘Oui’ or yes would be the result. He had stance that he was not fighting ‘‘against Europe’’, but had serious reservations over the economic policies that were leading to unemployment and lack of social protections.

Anyway, the unity efforts would be seriously impaired at least for a few years to come. Ironically, it was former French foreign minister Robert Schuman who floated the idea of the an EU in 1950, and France is one of the founder members of the EU.