NGOS CHAMPION CONSTITUTION REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN.

At the instigation of the European Referendum Campaign (ERC), representing about 300 NGOs in the 25 EU Member States, a European petition has been posted on a special site (1) calling for a referendum to be held on the future European Constitution. The petition has already been signed by 97 former Convention members and about 80 political parties from 20 or so Member States. To date, the Governments of the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland, Denmark, Portugal and the Czech Republic have already come out in favour of a referendum and this ratification procedure is likely in Poland and France, where all the political parties are campaigning towards this end, and in Belgium, where Premier Guy Verhofstadt is calling for a referendum to be held.

The campaign seeks to be neutral as to the outcome of any referendum, as underscored by the variety of signatories in the Eurosceptic...