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The Dutch referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty was the first one in over a hundred years in a country that has no political culture of referendums to decide issues of national importance. The idea to call a consultative referendum originated in the country�s parliament, which, unlike the Dutch executive, wanted to consult the population about the latest developments in the history of European integration. (Crum, 2005). This is in contrast to the debate concerning the Treaty on European Union 13 years ago, for which the call to conduct a consultative referendum lacked a consensus among Dutch parliamentarians (Hartog, 1994).
The Netherlands is a founding member state of the original European Communities, created in the 1950s with the goal to assure security, prosperity and stability on the Continent. Why did this small country, whose people are still very strong advocates of European integration, reject the latest step in that project�s evolution? This is a question that requires a period of time to answer. The Dutch Prime Minister, Mr. Jan Peter Balkenende, has called for us to `think about how to make the most of this opportunity for reflection and reform.� (Balkenende, 2005)
The remarks in this article reflect the thoughts of someone who acknowledges just how far the countries of Europe have travelled in the 60 years since the end of World War II. In the midst of the destruction of a civilisation, there were decisive choices to make about how to learn from the past so as to live in peace. This fact can never be taken for granted: in the aftermath of rivalries that caused generations to be lost, Europe�s leaders started to write a new chapter in their shared history. Physical survival was at stake. Inherent in the journey on the road `less travelled by� was a calculated risk, that in time a part ofEurope would distinguish its project from that of the American and Soviet empires.The fundamental choice the leaders in Europe made at that time was to reject war among countries whose history for centuries had been `painted in blood.� The European Coal and Steel Community set those founding member states, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg on a different course. By rejecting the egoism that had led to incessant strife, The Netherlands chose to join its larger neighbours in a quest: to discover through steps in time no ordinary community. Europe�s project for peace had as a goal to speak truth to power by placing the equality of peoples before that of balances among states.
Through the years the Dutch remained faithful to that initial choice. The Europein which they also thrived was one with which they could identify because the Communities fulfilled apromised goal: security, prosperity and stability provided a port in an otherwise stormy ocean. Once the world�s traders with an empire that included teh authors birthplace, Brooklyn, the Dutch in this new millennium seek the assurance of a Europe in which their voice is not only recognised, but listened to, by the states the Netherlands traditionally fears will dominate the Continent � France and Germany. (Harryvan andHarst, 2005).
Since the fall of Berlin�s Wall and the birth of the Euro, political leaders have had to confront a historical choice as significant as the one made for Community decades ago � enlargement to the centre and east of the Continent to make Europe `whole and free.� T he most telling sign of Europe�s potential to evolve is its choice of a vocation, political union, which was, in the 1990s, the second road not taken. As in the 1950s, political leaders had a decisive choice to make � deepen integration to prepare for a larger Union or choose a quite different path: in the face of the unknown, or, more sadly, of not knowing what to do, advance with no political objective or geographical definition.
Our attempts to understand and toexplain integration in Europe must now wrestle with this decision and its implications. The Dutch refer-endum is a true reflection of the popular reality that is `an uncertain idea of Europe.� As the expression of a people, this vote is also the chance for us to revisit those images of Europe�s project, some of which we have come to take for granted, and others that we are only beginning to see.
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