01/08/2003 (Agence Europe) - CSU MEP, Markus Ferber, has voiced his strong reservations in a press statement about the proposal supported by around one hundred members of the European convention to ratify the future European Constitution by way of a Union-wide referendum (EUROPE 12 July p 15). Member States "as masters of the treaties must remain masters of the procedures", he declared in the communiqué. He also noted that any popular consultation at a European level would suppose the presence of European citizens, who, de facto, did not legally exist. Mr Ferber pointed out that the referendum would only happen in some Member States and that in any popular consultation at a European level, the large Member States risked placing the small countries in a minority. Therefore, he stressed that Germany, with more than 80 million inhabitants, had more of a voice than the future ten Member States put together, with their total population of around 70 million.