20 years of European journalism & history

France & Netherlands
vote against the
Constitution
the year
2005
"Both referenda weren't about the constitution," Guy Verhofstadt says. "In France,
it became a referendum on Jacques Chirac. In the Netherlands, it was about
whether they paid too much – something some Dutch politicians have been
repeating for 10 years."
By Koert Debeuf
Guy Verhofstadt MEP was Belgian prime
minister from 1999 until 2008, the period
that started with the Treaty of Nice and
ended with the Treaty of Lisbon.
"The idea of creating a European Convention with the
mission of writing a European Constitution was born
during the discussions in Nice in 2000," Verhofstadt
says.
In between, in 2001, under his leadership, the Belgian
presidency of the EU launched the Laeken Declaration
which set in train the European Convention, chaired
by France's Valérie Giscard d'Estaing.
The goal was to write a European Constitution. When
that constitution was voted down in the referenda in
France and the Netherlands in 2005, the constitution
was stripped of its constitutional elements, and
became the Treaty of Lisbon.
"We all realised that too many files were blocked by
rigid decision procedures. There was also a lack of
clarity on the competences of the EU."
"The European leaders decided to install a weighing
of votes per country and the principle of subsidiarity,
where countries could flag when they thought the EU
was going beyond its competences. But in the last
article of the treaty, we wrote that Europe needed a
convention to give the EU a constitutional law."
The 'family photo' after the Laeken summit, with Guy Verhofstadt
and the late Jacques Chirac (front line, centre)
Photo: Counci
14 — EUOBSERVER ANNIVERSARY 2020