Voters in Luxembourg briefly revived the European constitution on Sunday when they strongly endorsed the measure weeks after emphatic "no" votes in France and Holland.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg prime minister who had threatened to resign if the Grand Duchy had voted the same way, emerged triumphant after the constitution was approved by 56.52 percent to 43.48 percent.
As an arch-federalist, Juncker immediately attempted to use the results to keep the debate alive.
"If Luxembourg had said `no' the constitution would have been dead," he declared on Sunday night.
As Luxembourg has said "yes" the process can go ahead. There is a way for the European constitution to be adopted.
"If Luxembourg had said `no,' Europe would have been in an ultra-serious crisis. Now that Luxembourg has voted `yes,' Europe is still in crisis, but there is a silver lining," he said.
The Luxembourg prime minister earlier concluded that French and Dutch "no" votes were not a rejection of the constitution but were motivated by other concerns. On Sunday he appeared to suggest that only Luxembourg has a veto.
However, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, offered Juncker some hope Sunday night when he hailed the vote as "a strong signal" that most European countries support the constitution.
Every other EU member to have approved the constitution has relied on a parliamentary vote, except for Spain. Barroso balanced his upbeat language by admitting that the future of the constitution is "uncertain."
Choosing his words carefully German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder said: "It is an encouragement and invitation to all Europeans to seek joint ways of quickly overcoming the current crisis."
The remarks reflect the private view of many European leaders who believe it is all but impossible to see how the constitution can survive the double rejection by voters in France and the Netherlands on May 29 and June 1.
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
Scientists yesterday announced a milestone in neurobiological research with the mapping of the entire brain of an adult fruit fly, a feat that might provide insight into the brains of other organisms and even people. The research detailed more than 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons — brain nerve cells — in the insect, a species whose scientific name is Drosophila melanogaster and is often used in neurobiological studies. The research sought to decipher how brains are wired and the signals underlying healthy brain functions. It could also pave the way for mapping the brains of other species. “You might
INSTABILITY: If Hezbollah do not respond to Israel’s killing of their leader then it must be assumed that they simply can not, an Middle Eastern analyst said Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah leaves the group under huge pressure to deliver a resounding response to silence suspicions that the once seemingly invincible movement is a spent force, analysts said. Widely seen as the most powerful man in Lebanon before his death on Friday, Nasrallah was the face of Hezbollah and Israel’s arch-nemesis for more than 30 years. His group had gained an aura of invincibility for its part in forcing Israel to withdraw troops from southern Lebanon in 2000, waging a devastating 33-day-long war in 2006 against Israel and opening a “support front” in solidarity with Gaza since
RSS