July 11, 2005

THE MOUSE THAT ROARED

Luxembourg approves EU charter (Graham Bowley, International Herald Tribune, July 11th, 2005)

Luxembourg voted to approve the European Union's draft constitution in a referendum Sunday, the first country to do so since the treaty was overwhelmingly rejected in France and the Netherlands.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg declared that the treaty was still alive after voters approved the text by 56.52 percent, taking the total number of EU countries that have approved the treaty to 13 out of 25.

"The message that has come out and which is addressed to Europe and the world is that the constitution is not dead after the votes in France and the Netherlands," Juncker said on Luxembourg television.

This must be what Europeans have in mind when they talk about punching above their weight.

Posted by Peter Burnet at July 11, 2005 7:48 PM
Comments

Chirac will be on TV tomorrow, urging reconsideration (or an outright end run) of the vote in France. It's all he has left.

Posted by: jim hamlen at July 11, 2005 8:08 PM

What really staggered me was the notion that Jean-Claude Juncker proposed and that was that the nations that rejected the EU Constitution would simply have to have another vote. It's like 'You'll keep voting till you get it right.'

Posted by: bart at July 11, 2005 8:12 PM

Sorta like the way they kept recounting the Upper Left Washington governors ballots until they got the right results. (Or had a second stadium vote when the first got rejected.)

Vote early, vote often, but it only counts if we (the Left) win.

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at July 11, 2005 8:43 PM

Reminds me of the scene in The Last Emperor where Pu Yi hears from one of his Japanese handlers that Manchuko has been recognized by El Salvador, and it's just a matter of time before the rest of the world follows suit.

Posted by: Mike Morley at July 11, 2005 10:18 PM

Malta has also given a loud and resounding YES to the EU constitution.

In other news, the NHL may be on the verge of avoiding disintigration, and the MLB All-star game is to be played in Detroit, Michigan tomorrow night.

Posted by: Dave W. at July 11, 2005 11:11 PM

Luxembourg's vote simply means the Europe elite can continue to focus all of their energy on getting the constitution enforced (sorry, "approved") instead of actually working on reforming EU.

Posted by: AWW at July 11, 2005 11:19 PM
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