MEPs back plan to save EU constitution

The European Parliament has adopted a plan aiming to revive the EU constitution, while rejecting attempts to acknowledge the need for a revision of the original text.

"The constitution is not dead. That is the outcome of today's decision," commented the parliamentary rapporteur on the issue, Austrian green MEP Johannes Voggenhuber

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The plan, supported by 385 MEPs, with 125 deputies voting against and 51 abstentions, is a response to the 2005 decision by the member states to hold a "reflection period" over the fate of the treaty, after it was rejected by French and Dutch citizens.

Its main idea is to organise various parliamentary and citizens' forums to keep the issue alive on the public agenda.

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However, a majority of MEPs supported the view that the "positive" outcome of the reflection would be to maintain the constitution's text as it stands now, while taking measures to "meet the concerns" expressed in France or the Netherlands.

These measures could include extra protocols or declarations about the EU's social model to be added to the constitution, a possibility also recently mooted by German chancellor Angela Merkel.

During the debate about the report on Wednesday (18 January), several MEPs rebuffed such ideas, with British eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farrage arguing "This refusal to accept reality is a form of moral deafness. Sooner or later they will wake up, but it will be with a horrendous hangover."

[fonte: EU Observer]