D'Estaing says French 'No' sparked EU crisis
The architect of the EU constitution today blamed the EU crisis on France’s rejection of the treaty, saying it opened a chasm within the 25-member bloc.
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, a former French president, said he believed it was an “error” for France to turn down the constitution in its May 29 referendum.
“You all talk about a crisis in Europe, but who triggered the crisis? It’s us,” he said. “If France had ratified the constitution ... there wouldn’t have been a crisis in Europe.”
The rejection by France, a founding member of the EU, was followed three days later by a Dutch rejection. The two “no” victories were a blow to the constitution, which needed approval by all EU members to take effect, and threw EU leaders at a summit last week into a quandary over how to proceed.
Added to that was a fierce dispute over the EU’s 2007-2013 budget. Britain insisted it would not forego a refund it has long benefited from and France refused Britain’s stance that expensive agricultural subsidies, which mainly benefit French farmers, must be rethought.
The summit that ended early on Saturday opened up a basic difference in visions within the 25-member bloc, with Britain opting for an American-style free-market system and France intent on preserving social welfare protections.
For Giscard d’Estaing, the constitution “resolved the problem” of opposing visions. In the constitution, “there were not two Europes,” he said. “It was a common project of 25” that took two years of work and was signed by French and Germans as well as the British, Swedish and Spanish.
