EU Parliament President Borrell welcomes Finland's ratification of the Constitutional Treaty

Josep Borrell, the President of the European Parliament, gave a warm welcome to the ratification by the Finnish Parliament of the Constitutional Treaty on Tuesday. This brings to sixteen the number of Member States which have ratified it.

Mr Borrell said:

"As my Finnish counterpart, Mr Lipponen, was at the European Parliament today, I was able to congratulate him in person on the ratification of the Constitutional Treaty by his Parliament.

Finland, which holds the Presidency of the European Union until the end of the year, has set an example. Including Romania and Bulgaria, which ratified the Constitution at the same time as their Accession Treaties, 18 States out of 27, representing 56% of the population of the EU, will have ratified the Treaty by 1 January 2007 - a two-thirds majority.

This is a symbolic threshold, which in many national democracies would be sufficient for the revision of fundamental provisions such as these, but in the EU, where unanimity is still required, it is not enough.

What should be done now? Today in Brussels, the European Parliament, in a joint initiative with the Finnish Parliament, has brought together nearly 250 national Members of the Parliaments of the EU-25 and of the candidate countries with Members of the European Parliament to debate the future of the Union and at last to abandon reflection for action.

Since the 'no' votes in France and the Netherlands, various Member States have suspended their ratification procedures. During the interparliamentary meeting in Brussels, it became clear that the draft Constitutional Treaty would not enter into force and would have to be reconsidered.

But this latest ratification represents further endorsement of the opinion of those who, like the majority of the EP and like myself, believe that, in seeking a solution, it would be wrong to depart too far from the existing text. The Constitutional Treaty is the balanced outcome of more than two years of difficult negotiations."

| Top |

• Brussels European Council - EU Presidency Conclusions (15/12/2006)
• "The Future of Europe" - Speech by EU Commission President Barroso  (5/12/2006)
• "The Constitutional Treaty: The Way Forward" - Speech by EU Commissioner Wallström (18/10/2006)
• EU Commission President Barroso: A Citizen's Agenda - Delivering Results for Europe  (10/5/2006)
• Margot Wallström se félicite de la ratification de la Constitution européenne par la Belgique (9/2/2006)