By Hans-Jürgen Schlamp in Brussels
Nobody ever said their jobs would be easy. EU heads Juncker and Barroso toughed it out Sunday night trying to come up with something positive to say in the wake of the resounding French No vote.
"I am not a doctor, Madame," Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, retorted to a journalist, who on Monday asked him if the French refusal to accept the European Union constitution meant that the treaty was "already dead." As he answered, Juncker, whose nation holds the rotating EU presidency, himself looked like he could use immediate medical attention. Gray and virtually bloodless, he bravely stood before the press in Brussels' Berlaymont building -- which is the heart of the EU administration -- and attempted to find a few building blocks amid all the EU rubble.
He kept at it even after midnight on Sunday. Just one hour earlier, France's President, Jacques Chirac, quietly announced his failure. France had voted overwhelmingly -- 55 percent to 45 -- against accepting the EU constitution in its current form. For Juncker and Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, who stood next to him at the press conference, coming forward about the failure was even tougher than for Chirac. In fact, the men spent first 15 minutes, and then another 15, crouched in their 11th floor offices trying desperately to concoct something positive to say about Europe in face of the French "non."
What they came up with, however, were little more than platitudes. Europe "regrets" but "respects" the "democratic vote," they said. They were also quick to point out that nine European nations -- Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Greece and Lithuania -- which make up 49 percent of the EU population, have already ratified the constitution. Their attempts at cheer and their "everything will work out" assurances, however, came out sounding cramped and artificial.
No easy escape plan
Of course, they had braced themselves for a French No vote. But no one was ready for a disaster of the magnitude that occurred. Close to 70 percent of the French turned out for the vote. Originally, the plan had been to simply push forward -- as the EU did when the Irish voted down the Nice treaty and the Danish rejected the Maastricht treaty. EU officials had hoped to get the constitution ratified land by land and then, at the end, if one or two votes went astray, they planned to patch things over simply by asking the nay-saying nations to vote again. The idea was that pressure from the rest of the nations would secure a positive result. But what worked in Ireland and Denmark appears to be a pipe dream as far as France is concerned.
"With this result," a resigned Juncker said, one couldn't just "have the French immediately vote one more time." Barroso agreed with a sad shake of his head. They are at a loss; that much is clear. "We are perplexed," Juncker said. For some of the French who voted against the constitution, the document didn't offer enough Europe. For others, it was too much. It will be difficult, explained Juncker, to satisfy both groups.
Maybe, though, it isn't the different reasons people voted No that has sunk Europe into a deep identity crisis but rather the lack of Yes votes. Maybe what happened in France on Sunday was the manifestation of a feeling that has been latent across Europe for a long time: the evaporation of faith in the European model and a renunciation by Europeans of an institution that they no longer see as protective but rather as threatening. The vote was also a warning shot across the bow of an institution Europeans have trouble comprehending for the precise reason that it has done little to make itself understood.
"Europe goes on, its institutions are still functioning," said Barroso encouragingly. And of course, the European club can continue to function administratively according to the rules laid down by the Treaty of Nice, which went into effect in 2001. But that won't be of much help as long as the existential questions surrounding the union remain.
More rough roads ahead
On the contrary. Even more trials are on the way for the tattered club, with next week's budget negotiations leading the way. The Germans and the Dutch feel like they are being bled dry whereas the new members from Eastern Europe feel as though they've been misled by promises that nobody wants to live up to anymore. The Spanish and the Italians are fighting for their subsidies and the Britons want to retain their rebate.
Furthermore, the question of Turkish accession, which is up for debate on October 3, also remains controversial. Great Britain and Italy are gung-ho supporters of Turkey. France and Germany -- should the opposition Christian Democrats win the elections in the fall -- are against the idea. And the remaining issues such as tax-dumping, social standards and environmental regulations will -- in a European ice age -- likely be more bitterly debated than they have been until now.
In light of such approaching difficulties, Juncker's prescription sounds almost absurd. "We aren't proud enough of Europe," he says. "We have to remind Europe that we have come far since Winston Churchill had the vision of a unified continent."
We may have come far, Euro-skeptics are likely to answer. But where are we headed?
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