Today's Date:

Western Europe

Visit to the Netherlands – Statements made by Michel Barnier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, during his joint press briefing with Bernard Bot, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (excerpts)

The Hague, April 19, 2005

OPCW/ICC

THE MINISTER – (...) Being in The Hague, this morning I made two visits I felt it important to make: one to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), a major organization in the battle against the possession of chemical weapons, located in The Hague, and (...) one to the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has just been bolstered, as you know, by the recent United Nations Security Council resolution on crimes against humanity and any atrocities committed in Sudan, in the Darfur region.

MIDDLE EAST/LEBANON/IRAQ/IRAN

There are today, of course, a lot of international challenges on which we, Bernard and I and our teams, see very broadly eye to eye. I'm thinking, for instance, about everything which is happening – and on the whole moving in the right direction, at any rate in a better one than a year ago – in the Middle East. We see a number of signals proving there is movement: the dialogue which has resumed between Israelis and Palestinians – and we know that this is fragile – the move towards greater sovereignty in Lebanon, the steps taken towards finding the way out of the crisis through democracy and elections in Iraq, and then the dialogue we are pursuing and endeavouring to bring to a successful conclusion – I'm talking about the three European countries which are in the vanguard of European diplomacy – with Iran. So we talked at some length about all these subjects and of course about other international concerns.

EU CONSTITUTION REFERENDA

And then both our countries, as Bernard has said, are engaged in a major debate on the ratification of the draft Constitutional Treaty for Europe. It's an important debate, a popular debate, and Dutch citizens, like the French, are entitled to this debate, a real democratic debate (...) and we will win it, not with slogans or invectives but by explaining the content of the Constitution. Of course, we can both say this – Dutch and French ministers –, our two countries have a special responsibility, since they are two of the six founding countries of the EU, known back then as the European Community, of this project which has kept its initial promise of shared peace and progress.

We are two founding countries, do we want to be founders of a revitalized Europe or do we take the risk of sidelining ourselves and losing our influence, which would be against our own national interests, run counter to our own ideas and the European project to which we have contributed so much? That's the question being asked through the vote on 29 May in France and 1 June in the Netherlands. (...)

Having done a great deal of work on this draft Constitution (...), been involved in it, we want to say that there won't be a second chance. If this Constitution isn't ratified, there won't be another discussion for a very long time and we'll automatically go back to the current treaties, which everyone knows aren't enough to make a 25-member EU operate properly and go further, take up certain challenges, particularly vis-ΰ-vis foreign policy and defence, which we have ahead of us.

We are confident of our ability to explain these issues, to appeal to reason and finally convince our compatriots to approve this text, because it will help ensure Europe is both more active jobs-wise, safer, more democratic, more efficient and more political [i.e. a Europe in which politicians are more in charge].

THE MINISTER – The Treaty text itself is equally useful both for our two countries and for Europe. That's a first point. But the debates going on in our two countries aren't the same. The political situations in our two States, the fears, concerns being voiced, aren't always comparable in two different countries. We can see this clearly when looking at other countries, aside from the Netherlands and France. So I don't think the two debates can be compared. (...)

THE MINISTER – I don't think we've given the impression of being flustered. We are, as Bernard said, vigilant. There's no particular nervousness, but we're active.

I take very seriously the opinion polls in my country at the moment expressing negative intentions and everything they show, everything they mean in terms of worries and concerns. (...)

For the rest, we have said, in the event of any country rejecting the Constitution, there's no "plan B". There won't be a new negotiation. So things are clear and simple, we'd remain, for a very long time, with the European Union operating as it does now, with the current Treaties./.