It’s over folks, the constitution that is, and for the foreseeable future, at least this seems to be the conclusion that can be drawn from Jos? Barroso’s comments in Poland yesterday. (Hat tip EU Observer)
“In the foreseeable future we will not have a constitution. That’s obvious. I haven’t come across any magic formulas that would bring it back to life”.
“Instead of never-ending debates about institutions, let’s work with what we’ve got. Political will and leadership are more important than institutions”
I think many of us here at Afoe drew this conclusion the day after the French vote. As Barroso says it’s now down to pragmatism and best foot forward. So let’s see what happens at the October summit.,
It remains to be seen if they try and implement some/most/all of the constitutional treaty through other mechanisms which allow less opportunity for dissent.
“It remains to be seen…”
Of course they will Otto, on that you and I am sure agree. The debate Henry Farrell was looking for has about as much chance of taking place as a europhile has of getting the leadership of the UK conservative party (oops, here comes Kenneth Clark).
I regret this, I think there should be new proposals and a serious debate, but I think your realpolitik vision of how it works in practice is probably not far short of the mark. Nice is largely still in force till 2014 so there is plenty of time. But I wouldn’t expect too many referendum in the near future, except, maybe, in Italy….