Grand Duchy stakes all on EU poll

By Dana Spinant

Date: 23/06/05

The citizens of Luxembourg should set an example to the rest of Europe by backing the EU constitution in a 10 July referendum, the country's deputy foreign minister has said.

"I hope that the Luxembourgers want to give this lesson to the citizens of the other member states. We must stop this negative spiral with a positive result," Nicolas Schmit said.

Despite a decision by EU leaders at the 16-17 June summit that more time should be allowed to ratify the Union's constitution, following its stunning rejections in referenda in France and the Netherlands, the Grand Duchy government announced this week that it would go ahead with its referendum.

Some fear that the negative mood will spread to the Grand Duchy, where the most recent opinion polls showed the 'No' side gaining ground (45% at the beginning of June, from 24% in October 2004).

"Luxembourg is taking a risk," Schmit said. "I hope this will be transformed into an opportunity to reverse the trend. Certainly, a 'No' would be bad, for Luxembourgers and for Europe. Luxembourgers are reasonable people. I hope they will understand what is at stake in this vote and will vote for this treaty, but also for what it represents, for a concept of Europe, more political, more social."

Schmit hopes that his co-nationals will give the message that "a small country, the second smallest country, has no fear of Europe, of losing its identity; that it wants a stronger Europe, more political, with more solidarity, with strong institutions and more democratic".

"That would be a beautiful lesson to give and I hope Luxembourgers will be up to the challenge," Schmit added.

The decision to hold the referendum, despite the breathing space offered by the EU summit's announcement, was taken by members of the Grand Duchy's parliament.

A senior EU diplomat said that Luxembourg's government was taking a huge risk, with consequences overflowing its borders: "The Luxembourg referendum will start the reflection period on the fate of the EU constitution. A 'No' would mean no need for reflection and would in fact be a slow death for the constitution, after three founding member states rejected it. But a 'Yes' vote would mean the reflection starts on a positive note, with a 2-2 result in referenda."

The Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who is acting chairman of the EU until the end of June, said he would resign if the result were negative. But diplomats say this went down badly with voters, despite Juncker's popularity at home, confirmed in last year's elections where he obtained an unprecedented personal score.

"It was a mistake to threaten to resign if the constitution fails," said one. "People see it as a blackmail, as if he wanted to abuse their confidence and exploit his own popularity to get the constitution adopted. Many people are already seeing it as an emotional blackmail and are likely to turn against the constitution."

Luxembourg's Foreign Minister, Nicolas Schmit, hopes his countrymen will set an example to the rest of Europe by voting 'yes' in the referendum on the European Constitution on 10 July 2005.