04/08/2004 (Agence Europe) - CSU MEP Markus Ferber is taking issue with the Schröder government, reproaching it for claiming that the German constitution forbids a referendum on the European Constitution. 34 German legal experts recently confirmed that a referendum could be held "relatively quickly and without problems" by applying article 20 of the German Basic Law or by completing article 23. "If Chancellor Schröder and Foreign Minister Fischer are afraid of a sovereign people, they should say so rather than justifying their negative attitude by citing the German constitution", said Mr Ferber in a communication. (See EUROPE of 28 July, p.4, on the proposals in favour of a German referendum by the social democrat Jo Leinen, the new President of the European Parliament's Institutional Committee).