Brussels, 14/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - Former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen took a stance against the holding of referendums on the future Constitutional Treaty, considering that, at this stage, the gap between words and deeds of political leaders and the level of information and comprehension of "ordinary" citizens was too flagrant to run the risk of blocking the whole European process of integration (the current Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, has already announced a referendum in 2004).
On Tuesday in Brussels, during the meeting of the Advisory Council of the European Policy Centre (EPC), Poul Nyrup Rasmussen appealed to political decision-makers to take into account what is happening in the "minds of ordinary citizens", who know "nothing" about subjects like the IGC or globalisation (the main subject of his speech before the EPC). In order to "reconnect" with people, "we do not need referendums, but explanations", Mr Rasmussen said. Thus, it is necessary to explain to citizens that European integration does not aim to remove part of the sovereignty of member nations but, on the contrary, to help them "regain part of the sovereignty that the national States have at any rate lost in the context of globalisation". The EU must play a more important role in the context of globalisation and the management of world affairs, said Mr Rasmussen (who is the author, for the PES, of the report entitled "Europe and a New global Order"). The EU must act, as the necessary reforms will not come from the United States.