A British "No" vote in a planned referendum on the EU constitution would be tantamount to a vote to leave the bloc, one of the country's two European Commissioners said yesterday.
External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten told the Observer newspaper a "No" vote in the referendum Prime Minister Tony Blair promised in a career-threatening U-turn last week would drive Britain from the EU -- set to expand on May 1 from 15 to 25 members.
"If we ever get into this referendum it's really going to be about whether we want to stay in. What's the point of being inside and endlessly, truculently making trouble," he said.
Asked if a vote against the constitution would mean Britain quitting the EU, the former Conservative Party government minister and ardent europhile said:
"I think as good as. I just think that psychologically we can't go on like this."
The proposed EU constitution, designed to oil the bloc's creaking decision-making mechanisms, which were drawn up when the group had just six original members, is scheduled to be agreed at an EU summit in June.
Blair, a staunch pro-European who has repeatedly rejected calls for plebiscites on a range of issues including the constitution, did an abrupt about-face on the issue on Tuesday.
But the once unassailable Blair, who has led his Labour Party to two consecutive landslide election wins but lost public trust over the war in Iraq, faces a serious uphill struggle.
An ICM poll in the News of the World said just 25 percent of people would support the proposed EU constitution, although 51 percent would vote to stay in the bloc.
The poll echoed similar results from other soundings during last week.
But the Sunday Telegraph quoted an unnamed government official it said was close to Blair as saying they were confident they could convince a traditionally europhobic populace.
"We know that if we had the referendum now we would lose. We know it is a very big risk. But we believe we can turn it around," the official was quoted as saying.
However, the pro-Conservative and euroskeptic Telegraph, which had campaigned for a referendum on the constitution, balanced this optimistic view with one of its own mocking Blair.
"A fading Blair is embracing a cause with the smell of death upon it: European integration," it said in an editorial.
Political analysts have said a "No" vote in the British referendum -- which is expected to take place in mid-2005 -- could torpedo both Blair's future and the constitution's.
Aware of the paralysis a British rejection could cause the bloc, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told Focus magazine he wanted the new constitution to permit implementation of new voting rules even if not all countries had ratified the deal.
A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office, which on Saturday hosted a party in central London to celebrate the imminent eastward expansion of the bloc with free food, drink and music, declined to comment on the German Chancellor's suggestion.
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