'Lisbon treaty made to avoid referendum'

Former French president Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, architect of the rejected constitution, published an open letter in Le Monde and some other European newspapers saying that the new Lisbon treaty alienates the citizens further.

'The EU's new treaty is the same as the rejected constitution, only the format has been changed to avoid referendums,' he said. The former chairman of the European Convention explained that it is thanks to the facts that the articles are spread out and constitutional vocabulary has been removed a referendums is being avoid.

His words are, according to the EUobserver, likely to fuel the calls for referendums in the UK and Denmark where the governments are arguing that there is no need for a public poll on the Lisbon treaty because it is sufficiently different from the EU constitution.

-Antonie van Campen-