SINGAPORE -- Recent referendums in both France and Netherlands dealt a blow to European integration as voters overwhelming rejected the proposed EU Constitution 55-45 percent and 64-37 per- cent, respectively. Nine countries, including Germany, Spain and Italy, have already approved the constitution via a parliamentary process. Britain, Denmark and Luxembourg, which had planned to hold referendums, have now canceled them.
The surprising opposition to the EU Constitution, which had taken months of negotiations to create, could set back EU integration, weaken the EU economically (as shown in the euro's plunge on world markets) and diminish the EU's credibility and reputation (particularly in view of how the latest summit in Luxembourg collapsed in open dissension).
Leading members of the EU, however, including Germany and France, have vowed to press on with the process of uniting Europe, although the European budget for the next eight years lies in shambles and future European architecture is mired in controversy.