Brussels, 09/06/2005 (Agence Europe) - As part of the pre-summit consultations, the president of the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker met On Thursday in Luxembourg, in turn, French president Jacques Chirac, Greek prime minister Costas Caramanlis and Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi.
In Poland where the authorities are awaiting the results from next week's European Council before deciding whether to hold a referendum on the Constitution next autumn, the “yes” appears to have fallen sharply since the French and Dutch referendums. 54% (before these two votes) to 40% according to the most recent polls. 35% (19% at the end of May) of possible participants in a referendum would reject the Constitution and 25% (21% in May) have no opinion. In Luxembourg, however, the “yes” appears to be stable. According to a poll carried out by the Luxembourg ILRES Institute on 1 June, 46% of Luxembourg citizens say they support the Constitutional Treaty (no change compared to views expressed in May). On the other and the “no” vote has increased from 32% to 38%, while 16% of Luxembourg voters remain undecided. This will be the last poll before the referendum on 10 July 2005. No polls are allowed to be published in the month leading up to a national election.
In the meantime, information from the Czech Republic suggests that prime minister Jiri Paroubek has categorically denied the ideas attributed to him by the BBC (and largely taken up by the European press and press agencies, including EUROPE 8963) according to which after the postponement of the British referendum, it will become “impossible” for the Czech government to hold its own referendum. Paroubek therefore affirmed on Thursday in the Czech press that he had not changed his opinion and he intended to pursue the process of ratification in his country while waiting for the results from the European Council on 16-17 June. The Czech prime minister, however, recognised that the French and Dutch votes, as well as the British decision “have complicated the situation for the Czech government”, as these events constitute some weighty arguments for the Czech opposition to the Constitution. According to the same sources, Paroubek intends to propose that the European Council postpones the planned Constitution ratification deadline by several months, namely, at the end of October 2006.