Political parties wary of publicly supporting Constitution referendum
MARK BEUNDERMAN
03.06.2004 @ 09:41 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Less than one third of EU countries' political parties running for the European elections are prepared to publicly state their support for a referendum on the EU Constitution, a "confession survey" by the European Referendum Campaign shows.
Referendum campaigners - "parties do not represent their voters demands" (Photo: ERC)
The European Referendum Campaign, a cross-political network involving both federalists and eurosceptics, presented the results of its survey yesterday (3 June) in Brussels.
The survey, which covers more than 250 parties across Europe, shows that only 30% of parties actually want to commit themselves to supporting a referendum on the EU Constitution - either in their country or on a Europe-wide basis.
In the "confession survey", the parties were asked by the campaigners to have their name put on a list of pro-referendum parties - something which not many parties were prepared to do.
"So only 30% of the parties want to let their voters have a say on this important question", concluded Marian Zdeb, who was in charge of the survey.
"In contrast to that, 84% of EU citizens are in favour of a referendum. The conclusion must be that most parties do not represent their voters demands".
Although the pro-referendum list is still open for parties to join until 10 June, Mr Zdeb told the EUobserver that he does not expect many parties to sign up.
However, many parties that are known to support referendums have not signed up to the list either.
The two biggest parties supporting a referendum in the Netherlands, Labour and the Liberals, are not on the list.*
Mr Zdeb suspects "political reasons" for the wariness of parties to join the European Referendum Campaign.
"Maybe they don't want to be held publicly accountable by us in the future", he said.
But many major parties in Europe do not share this fear.
Neutral concerning the result
Supporters of the European Referendum Campaign include the French governing party UMP, the German Greens and Liberals, the British Conservatives and Labour, as well as parties such as the Austrian far-right Freedom Party.
The Flemish Liberals, whose leader and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt gave his support to a referendum in his country earlier this week, are also on the list.
The European Referendum Campaign (ERC) is supported by around 300 NGOs all over Europe. It is neutral concerning the result of the referendums.
The campaigners state they are "neither in favour nor against an EU Constitution but pro democracy".
* After publication of this article, both Dutch parties subsequently indicated that they would sign up to the European Referendum Campaign list. (3 June)
