The international style

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Passion apart, there is also the politics. Merkel has just launched an ambitious, if discreet, campaign to rescue the constitution. She is already highly rated as a very good listener and a skilful fixer. On the constitution, though, she wants to get her way and intends to bang heads for the next six months of her EU presidency to that end.

Her team has drafted a detailed timetable for what looks like a make-or-break attempt to reshape the way Europe is run. In an unusual move, she has just asked all EU leaders to appoint a senior figure to resume negotiations on the constitution behind closed doors over the next few months. There is to be minimal public disclosure. She hopes to avoid any further popular votes or referendums on the constitution.

In June Merkel will table an EU "roadmap", outlining how to enact the constitution within two years. The aim is to have the deal in the bag before the next European parliament elections in 2009.

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Well this will do wonders to dispell public doubts about the EU-project!

But snark aside, is this even possible? Are there not some member countries that demand referendums to change their constitutins which might be necessary to enact the EU constitution? And how will the french and netherland publics react to being by-passed?

I would like to point out what I wrote this summer:

Public participation in the EU

Solutions
Here is a list of three ways treaties could be passed in the EU with a focus on the public participation.

A) No public participation
If there is no referendums, ratification can go smoothly as long as the parliaments can be trusted. The governments doing the negotiation should know what can be passed in their respective parliament. States with mandatory referendums has to remove it from their constitutions (which would include referendums...). Switzerland can never join.

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I think A will happen. The elites will get rid of the pesky referendums.