The fallout from the referendum results

Written by Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP and published in Barking & Dagenham Recorder on Thu 2nd Jun 2005

The big European story this week is of course the fallout from the French (and Dutch) referendum results.

One British newspaper headline screamed: "French give kiss of death to EU superstate". The only thing is, they didn't! Far from increasing centralised control, one of the many advantages of the new EU constitution is that it sets limits, for instance giving new powers to national parliaments to show a "yellow card" to proposed new laws.

I'm certainly disappointed with the 'Non'. There was a lot of misunderstanding around. For instance, French opponents of the constitution said it would undermine women's rights. This is absurd! Equality of women and men, such as equal pay, is one of the lynchpins of EU laws.

The very term 'constitution' has frightened the horses! But it only means a set of rules and procedures; every tennis and bowls club, every tenants' association, has one.

By junking the new European constitution, we would lose the chance of democratic control over £27 billion a year of agricultural subsidies and of stopping the dumping of farm produce on the Third World. We kiss goodbye to stronger rights to force the EU to back off if it exceed its remit, to streamlining of bureaucracy, and to a greater World role for Europe to promote peace.

It's strange that the French have rejected, mainly for their own internal reasons of being fed up with their own government (aren't we all!) a text which includes explicit recognition of the different "national identities" of the 25 member states.

What seems to have particularly unnerved the French is that this constitution is a recognition that Europe has changed. It is no longer the rather rigid and inflexible 1950s French-dominated model. 21st-century Europe is more open, more democratic, more diverse and more adaptable. If the French don't like it, maybe we should?