PARIS -- At the end of last May, French and Dutch voters rejected by a strong majority the draft European constitution worked out by a convention chaired by former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Since all 25 member-states of the European Union had to approve the treaty, the chances of it ever taking effect became tantamount to nil.
To be sure, some of opponents of the treaty, as well as backers, pretended that new negotiations could be opened to remove the main objections. But getting all EU members to agree on a new text looked quite impossible.
Everybody was aware of the fact that, despite his oft-expressed European convictions, British Prime Minister Tony Blair was satisfied with the outcome of the French and Dutch referendums, as it effectively relieved him of his pledge to hold a British poll that he probably would have lost. Britons seemed more hostile than ever to the very idea of the EU.