French:Clear limits to the expansion of the European Union should be laid down which would exclude Turkey, the Maghreb and Ukraine from full membership for the foreseeable future, former French prime minister Laurent Fabius said in Dublin yesterday.
A key leader of the "No" campaign that defeated the constitutional treaty in the 2005 French referendum, Mr Fabius said the document should be shortened and revised.
The third part, dealing with policy, should be dropped, but he stressed that any redrafted version should undergo a second referendum rather than being ratified at parliamentary level.
Speaking prior to a debate at the Trinity College Historical Society, Mr Fabius proposed an EU based on three concentric circles, consisting of fully developed member states, less developed member states and associate states such as Turkey and Ukraine.
"A constitution deals with values, not with the content of politics," the socialist politician said. "The third part, which comprises more than 300 articles, deals with the content of politics and that has something to do with treaties, but not with constitutions and, therefore, we have to put that apart."
In addition there had to be more clarity about the borders of the EU: "We have to take advantage of this very moment to define what are the frontiers of Europe." The idea of a uniform Europe was old-fashioned: "We have to go to what I call a 'differentiated Europe'."
This would consist of an inner circle of states with a high degree of economic integration, social harmonisation and "probably agreements in terms of defence, for instance".
There would be a second circle of member states which were at a less advanced stage.
"At the periphery you would have to have the third circle with countries with which we have to have close co-operation, such as Turkey, Maghreb [ region], Ukraine but which, as I see it, in the foreseeable future will not be members of Europe because otherwise you have no frontiers and it's too loose [ an] entity."
Asked about the proposal by Nicolas Sarkozy for a "mini-constitution", he warned this could be a device to avoid holding a second referendum - an impossible position for a democrat.
