[rmnunez]

Referendums are not binding they are specifically drafted to provide guidance. In the US this devise is not often used but in Europe its more frequent. The outcome merely suggests to the legislature how the document should be drafted, the one they've got is obviously not good enough yet.

The proposed EU constitution has been through a lengthy drafting process and Giscard didn't work alone. There were debates on how to modify apportioned representation with each the enlargenment, governments got votes in decisive EU organs based on censuses and data contrived to provide an adequate balancing of interests that reflected the relative powers of varying constituencies. I've read about constitution drafting assemblies meeting in Scotland, Belgium, Holland, France and Spain on the issue of overlapping jurisdictions and legal subsidiarity. The connundrum is social spending and economic growth. Lots of people are on the dole in the EU's leading economies. Their currency is inflated despite chronic deficit spending and their competitive edge has eroded with the addition of costly benefits and entitlements. Newly integrated members are successfully pursuing reductions in social spending and fewer labor-related benefits to spur employment and economic growth. Germany, France and Spain have 12 to 15% unemployment rates. Immigration is a major problem and the EU has failed to curb this. It is a primary concern to many native Europeans who find their own identity swamped in their multicultural milieu and they see this more brought on than hampered by the borderless EU.

I do believe this constitution should be postponed until the European Parliament feels the need, that they should draft it rather than Giscard and that thereby they can constitute themselves as representatives of their respective governments rather than obscure grey functionaries of indeterminate diplomatic precedence and quasi executive function as they now are.