It’s Nice to Know they Listen

From Open Europe Giscard d’Estaing: “rejection of the Constitution was a mistake which will have to be corrected” – “if the Irish and the Danes can vote yes in the end, so the French can do it too.” At a lecture at the LSE last night former French President and chief drafter of the EU Constitution Valéry Giscard d’Estaing argued unequivocally that “The rejection of the Constitution was a mistake which will have to be corrected.” He said, “The Constitution will have to be given its second chance”, and joked, “Everyone makes mistakes.” He said people voted no out of an “error of judgement” and “ignorance.” He said, “In the end, the text will be adopted.” He mentioned the second referendums that took place in Ireland and in Denmark, and said that “if the Irish and the Danes can vote yes in the end, so the French can do it too.” Giscard also said “We want a political union,” claiming that “it is no longer a case of debating what we want to do, but determining how we do it.” He said that an “urgent task” for the EU now is to “carefully prepare a realistic timetable and binding commitments with a view to establishing the European political Union.” He said, “It was a mistake to use the referendum process, but when you make a mistake you can correct it.” He also predicted that the Constitution would be a stepping stone to further integration later, arguing that “adoption of the Constitution will not be enough to complete Europe’s political union,” and that the Constitution is for this generation, but for the next generation “there will be something else.”