Press writes up obituary of EU constitution
AFP, Paris
Beaten up and left for dead, the EU constitution is little more than a wreck that it would be better to bury right away, European newspapers said yesterday after Dutch voters landed it a fresh mortal blow. Metaphors of death filled the editorial columns of major dailies which saw no chance of resurrecting a text now soundly rejected in referendums in both France and the Netherlands, two founding members of the European Union. "If France's vote dealt the treaty a critical blow," said the Guardian in Britain, "the Dutch have now delivered the coup de grace." France's Liberation said the constitution was "brain dead." In Spain, the influential El Pais said Wednesday's Dutch vote following the French referendum Sunday "confirms that this long project is in its death throes." The Turkish press joined in. "Killed by France, buried by the Netherlands," headlined the daily Akasam. Dutch voters spurned the treaty, designed to streamline and harmonise the way the expanding European Union is run and prevent institutional paralysis, with 61.6 percent turning it down.
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