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■ “We decide on something. We leave it lying around and wait and see what happens. If no-one kicks up a fuss, because most people don’t know what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back.”—Jean-Claude Juncker (prime minister of Luxembourg), Economist (London), 24 September 2004 ■ “The rejection of the Constitution is a mistake which will have to be corrected. If the Irish and the Danes can vote Yes in the end, so the French can do it too.”—Valéry Giscard d’Estaing (former president of France, chairperson of the convention that drew up the EU Constitution), speaking at London School of Economics, 28 February 2006 ■ “Referendums make the process of approval of European treaties much more complicated and less predictable . . . I was in favour of a referendum as a prime minister, but it does make our lives with twenty-seven member-states in the EU much more difficult. If a referendum had to be held on the creation of the European Community or the introduction of the euro, do you think these would have passed?”—José Manuel Barroso (president of the European Commission), Volkskrant (Nijmegen), 6 February 2007 ■ “Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly . . . All the earlier proposals will be in the new text but will be hidden and disguised in some way.”—Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Le Monde, 14 June 2007 ■ “The aim of the Constitutional Treaty was to be more readable; the aim of this treaty is to be unreadable . . . The Constitution aimed to be clear, whereas this treaty had to be unclear. It is a success.”—Karel de Gucht (foreign minister of Belgium), Flandreinfo, 23 June 2007 ■ “Thankfully, they haven’t changed any of the substance [of the rejected Constitution].”—Bertie Ahern (Taoiseach), RTE News, 23 June 2007 ■ “90 per cent of it is still there . . . These changes haven’t made any dramatic change to the substance of what was agreed back in 2004.”—Bertie Ahern, Irish Independent, 24 June 2007 ■ “All the Constitution is there. Nothing is missing.”—Jean-Louis Bourlanges (Alliance of Democrats and Liberals for Europe), radio programme “Esprit Public,” 24 June 2007 ■ “The substance of what was agreed in 2004 has been retained. What is gone is the term ‘constitution’.”—Dermot Ahern (Minister for Foreign Affairs), Daily Mail Ireland, 25 June 2007 ■ “The substance of the constitution is preserved. That is a fact.”—Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany), speaking in the European Parliament, 27 June 2007 ■ “As for the changes now proposed to be made to the constitutional treaty, most are presentational changes that have no practical effect. They have simply been designed to enable certain heads of government to sell to their people the idea of ratification by parliamentary action rather than by referendum.”—Garret FitzGerald (former Taoiseach), Irish Times, 30 June 2007 ■ “Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would it be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?”—Jean-Claude Juncker (prime minister of Luxembourg), Telegraph (London), 3 July 2007 ■ “Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organisation of empire. We have the dimension of empire.”—José Manuel Barroso (president of the European Commission), EU Observer, 10 July 2007; Telegraph (London), 11 July 2007 ■ “They decided that the document should be unreadable. If it is unreadable, it is not constitutional—that was the sort of perception.”—Giuliano Amato (former prime minister of Italy, vice-chairperson of the convention that drew up the EU Constitution), recorded by Open Europe, London, 12 July 2007 ■ “The difference between the original Constitution and the present Lisbon Treaty is one of approach, rather than content . . . The proposals in the original constitutional treaty are practically unchanged. They have simply been dispersed through the old treaties in the form of amendments. Why this subtle change? Above all, to head off any threat of referenda by avoiding any form of constitutional vocabulary . . . But lift the lid and look in the toolbox: all the same innovative and effective tools are there, just as they were carefully crafted by the European Convention.”—Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Independent (London), 30 October 2007 ■ “There is a cleavage between people and governments . . . There would be no Treaty if we had a referendum in France . . .”—Nicolas Sarkozy (president of France), at a meeting of members of the European Parliament, EU Observer, 14 November 2007 ■ “France was just ahead of all the other countries in voting No. It would happen in all member-states if they have a referendum.”—Nicolas Sarkozy, Telegraph (London), 15 November 2007 ■ “We have been told that our right to strike is fundamental, but not as fundamental as free movement of services.”—John Monks (general secretary, European Trade Union Confederation), European Parliament Social Affairs Committee, 26 February 2008 |
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