There was no "plan B" for dealing with the rejection of the EU constitutional treaty in France and the Netherlands but there was a "plan D" for dialogue and democracy, European Commission president José Manuel Barroso told a meeting of the National Forum on Europe in the Mansion House yesterday.
He rejected the option of renegotiating the document to take on board the concerns of the No campaigners. "Why is this? Because, paradoxically, the constitution is already designed to address the very issues that the No campaigners have been using as arguments against it."
The existing document was already "the best possible compromise" with "a delicate balance of competing views", he said. "That is why there is no plan B."
The referendums were never about "the nuts and bolts of the text of the constitution", according to the commission president.
"They were a rare chance for some of Europe's citizens to register their general unease and discontent about the changes going on around them." The constitution was "a victim of circumstance" and the vote was really "more about the context than the text".
However, this did not mean that the French and Dutch No really meant Yes. "It does not mean we should find clever ways to press on with the adoption of the constitution anyway. There will be no constitution by the back door."
Member states representing more than half the EU population had approved the constitution, one of them in a referendum. "But," Mr Barroso continued, "ignoring the referendum results in France and the Netherlands would simply reinforce the view of Europe as an elite project that pays scant attention to the views of its citizens."
The time had come to "listen to our citizens' concerns" but this did not mean a rerun of the convention which drew up the constitution. There should be "a short period of reflection".
The commission would play a special role in the debate and would visit the member states in the coming 12 months "to kick-start this 'plan D' of dialogue and democracy". The aim was to set out "clear ideas" which should feed into the European Council held under the Austrian presidency in June 2006. The rest of Europe should learn from the example of Ireland's Forum on Europe in encouraging debate.
Responding later to comments from the floor, Mr Barroso made an impassioned case for the EU as a mechanism for the prevention of war. He reminded his audience, which included senior politicians and members of the diplomatic corps, that it was only about 60 years since the horrors of Auschwitz and only 10 years since the massacre at Srebrenica in the Balkans. He also highlighted what he said were the benefits of EU membership for the smaller countries like Ireland and his native Portugal.
Speakers from Sinn Féin, the Socialist Party and the Peace and Neutrality Alliance were highly critical of Mr Barroso's contribution.
There was a round of applause from the mainly pro-EU audience for SDLP representative Alban Maginness MLA, who said his party came from "a part of the country that has suffered grievously from the clash of nationalism and chauvinism" and looked to the EU as a "model for conflict resolution". The former Belfast lord mayor encouraged Mr Barroso to "keep the faith in the European ideal".
