EU: European Union leaders look set to allow member states to suspend the process of ratifying the EU constitution when they meet for a two-day summit in Brussels tomorrow.
With opinion polls showing mounting popular opposition to the constitution throughout Europe, pressure grew yesterday to lift the deadline of October 2006 for ratifying it.
The Government wants tomorrow's summit to make any decision to halt, suspend or continue the ratification process binding on all member states, but there were signs yesterday it would be left to each country to decide for itself on how to proceed.
Sweden's prime minister Goran Persson told his country's parliamentary EU committee that the deadline for ratifying the constitution should be lifted and that EU leaders should revisit the constitution in a year's time.
"It should be left open to each country to advance at the pace that it deems suitable," he said.
The French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said his government would not seek to oblige other countries to proceed with ratification if they do not wish to.
Britain's Tony Blair yesterday called for a "period of reflection" before the EU decides what to do about the constitution following its rejection by voters in France and the Netherlands.
"I think it would be sensible if we agreed, in view of the No votes in France and Holland . . . that we should have this pause for reflection over a period of months so that we can give Europe the debate it needs and then the direction it needs," he said after a meeting with French president Jacques Chirac in Paris.
Denmark's foreign minister, Per Stig Moeller, told the Jyllands Posten newspaper that his country's referendum planned for September 27th should be cancelled unless it was clear that the constitution would not be amended to make it more acceptable to French and Dutch voters.
"We can't vote on something that is then going to be changed again. We must have absolute clarity about the text of the constitution before we have a referendum," he said.
Britain's foreign secretary Jack Straw suggested yesterday that each member state would be allowed to decide for itself whether or not to proceed with ratification.
"The sense I have now is that, at a minimum, the European summit is likely to agree that whether ratifications go ahead should be left to individual member states, and I think that is obviously sensible because each country has got to take account of its own domestic circumstances.
"Whether they agree a more thorough common position on that line remains to be seen," he said.
Opinion polls show more voters opposing the constitution than supporting it in Ireland, Britain, Denmark and the Czech Republic, all of which have promised to hold referendums. Support has fallen sharply in Luxembourg, which is due to vote on it next month and in Poland, which planned to hold a referendum this autumn.
The constitution remains overwhelmingly popular in Portugal, which is due to hold a referendum in October.