Austria
The Bundesrat, the Upper Chamber in the Austrian Parliament ratified the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe on Wednesday 25th May ; 59 votes in favour versus 3 against. This ratification comes just two weeks after its approval by the Nationalrat, the Lower Chamber. On 11th May the Nationalrat ratified the Treaty almost unanimously by 182 votes in favour and one against.
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European unions call for a vote in favour
On Tuesday 24th May the CFDT published a European appeal on the part of the unions in favour of the YES vote emphasising the “social progress” included in the Constitution. This appeal was signed by several organisations that belong to the European Confederation of Unions. In France it was signed by the UNSA and in Europe by the Italian CISL, the CGIL and the UIL, by the German DGB, the Spanish UGT and CCOO, the Portuguese UGTP, the Belgian CSC, the Dutch FNV, the Swedish LO, the Czech CMKOS and the Greek CGT.
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Belgium
The second chamber of Parliament has approved the constitutional treaty by a large margin of 118 votes in favour, 18 votes against and one abstention. The treaty has now to be submitted to the five federal assemblies. The Senate approved the Constitution already in April.
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France
During an evening presentation of the European Constitution, at Joinville-le-Point (Val-de-Marne) on Mai 19th, the former French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing refused an eventual renegotiation of the constitutional treaty asking: “And if we say no, with who to we will negotiate and about what?”
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Spain
Spain has become the ninth member of the European Union ratifying the constitutional treaty. With a vote of 225 in favour, six against and one abstention, the vote of the Senate confirmed the positive result of the Spanish referendum on February 20th (76% of the population voted for approving the constitution) as well as the vote of Parliament in April.
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France
Michel Pébereau, president of BNP Parisbas and Bertrand Collomb, president of Lafarge gave a presentation of the recently produced paper “Enterprises calling for a Yes to the European Constitution”, signed by a 100 of French large and small enterprises, such as: Accenture, Accor, Dassault Aviation, Lafarge, L'Oréal, Suez and Total.
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Poland / Germany
During a meeting in Nancy with the French President Jacques Chirac, the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder and the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski urged the French population to adopt the constitutional treaty. Schröder declared: “From the bottom of my heard, I ask you to vote yes”. Kwasniewski stated that Poland believes and trust in a positive turn out of the French referendum concerning the constitutional treaty. He emphasised that ratification by all member states would be a setting forth the strength of the European spirit.
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France
Following an opinion poll recently produced by IFOP, the Constitution and Europe are in the centre of the ongoing French public debate: 82% of the participants recently talked to their family, friend or colleagues about the question while even 84% confirmed that they were deeply interested in the constitutional issues.
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