BBC NEWS: Europe's Yes camp hardens position - "Overruling 60% of the EU's half a billion people is not a democratic solution" - by Oana Lungescu

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Europe's Yes camp hardens position: "Overruling 60% of the EU's half a billion people is not democratic solution" - by Oana Lungescu

The rift between the countries that support the European Union's beleaguered constitution and those who want to scrap it seems to be deepening. At a meeting in Madrid, the 18 countries that have ratified the treaty insisted it should remain the basis for any future agreement, despite the fact that it was rejected by French and Dutch voters.The message from Madrid is that the European constitution remains firmly on the agenda. We are ready to listen to the other countries, said the Spanish minister for Europe Alberto Navarro, but "we prefer to improve the treaty rather than to use the scissors, to cut the treaty". Mr Navarro insisted that the countries that ratified the constitution represent 60% of the EU's half a billion people and their voice deserves to be heard.

Spain now seems set on a collision course with countries like Britain, the Czech Republic and Poland. The Spanish foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, described the constitution as a "magnificent document" and said that instead of cutting it to pieces, more should be added to it to respond to people's concerns. Miguel Angel Moratinos also had a warning: that if no agreement could be found on the treaty, a core group of EU countries could go ahead with greater integration, leaving the others on the margins.

Now it is up to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has warned that failure to revive the constitution would be a historic mistake. She wants to map a way out of the crisis by June, but finding the middle ground looks increasingly like mission impossible.

Note EU-Digest: It seems strange that the two EU member states which voted against the constitution and other critical countries now want to overrule the vote of 60% of the EU's half a billion people which ratified the constitution. This is not a Democratic solution of the issue.