First translation and analysis of new version of the Constitutional Treaty: 96% of articles are copied from the original EU Constitution
24 July 2007
Responding to the publication of the new version of the European Constitution and the launch of the intergovernmental conference, Open Europe has produced the first English language translation of the new version of the Constitutional Treaty, and the first analysis of its contents - which suggests that it is almost exactly the same as the original European Constitution.
Open Europe Director Neil O’Brien said:
”We never expected that they would simply bring back all the text from the old constitution. All they seem to have done is renumber the articles. From this point forward it’s going to become absolutely impossible for Gordon Brown to resist a referendum, because this is exactly the same text that he promised a referendum on before.”
“If Brown now tries to carry on pretending that this is somehow a different document, it will be one of the most audacious political lies in the last couple of decades. It would be simply ludicrous.”
“Despite the fact that it has not been made available in English, we have been able to translate the text from the French quite quickly because we could mostly just cut and paste the English text from the old Constitution. The con they are trying to carry out here is just stunning. This is the cut-and-paste Constitution.”
You can get the translation at:
www.openeurope.org.uk/research/translation.pdf
You can get the analysis at:
http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/comparison.pdf
Notes for editors
1) For more information please contact Neil O’Brien on 0207 197 2333 or 07973 142775
2) In recent weeks almost all other EU leaders have stressed that the “new” treaty is the same as the old Constitution. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that “The substance of the constitution is preserved. That is a fact.” The Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen says that “The good thing is...that all the symbolic elements are gone, and that which really matters – the core – is left.”
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Zapatero says that “A great part of the content of the European Constitution is captured in the new treaties” The Czech President says that “Only cosmetic changes have been made and the basic document remains the same.”
European Commissioner Margot Wallstrom has said simply that “It’s essentially the same proposal as the old Constitution.” Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said that “they haven't changed the substance - 90 per cent of it is still there”. Our new research suggests that even that was an underestimate…