LUXEMBOURG — At the European Union's summit this week, debate will center on whether to go forward with a "mini" EU Constitutional Treaty. That debate is the result of the rejection of the draft treaty by French and Dutch voters in 2005. But those "no" votes have obscured the fact that 18 of the EU's 27 member states have ratified the treaty.
Luxembourg's voters, for example, approved it by a 56.5 percent majority immediately after the Dutch and French no votes. Indeed, with two-thirds of member states and a majority of European citizens supporting the treaty, it cannot simply be abandoned.
At the same time, French and Dutch citizens' voices cannot be ignored all the more so because it is unimaginable that an identical text could be submitted to a second referendum in either country. Because all 27 states must ratify the treaty, it therefore seems obvious that it cannot enter into force in its current form, and that the "yes" countries cannot push ahead with it unchanged.