Irish reaction: France could hold a second referendum on the EU constitution if minor changes were made that did not affect ratification by other countries, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has made clear.
Mr Ahern said yesterday he was "obviously disappointed" by the victory for the No camp. "But it looked fairly inevitable over the last number of weeks.
"But everyone has to accept the democratic decision of the French people. We are still committed to the constitution. I hope all member states are committed to it. Obviously, everyone has an obligation before November of next year to ratify."
He will discuss the crisis this week with the president of the European Council, Luxembourg's prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder during a one-day visit to Luxembourg and Berlin.
"The Netherlands will vote in a few days, Luxembourg within a few weeks. But obviously it can't all be ignored. There will have to be a serious debate on it at the European Council in a fortnight's time.
"I hope to be talking to some of my other colleagues over the next few days. We will just have to reflect and see how things are handled from here on out. There is another vote later this week and it is important for that to continue and for nobody to do anything that affects that campaign."
Asked if the French could vote a second time, he said: "The French people have to consider that. That has happened in the other two precedents over the last 15 years. It was left to the member state that rejected it to deal with the issue.
"Obviously I have first-hand experience of that. The same happened with in the Danish situation back 13 years ago. But there are a number of other votes coming up now. Nine have already ratified."
Asked what was the point of holding a referendum in the State now, the Taoiseach replied: "When we rejected it [ the Nice treaty] every other country went on and ratified it. We had to change the context, which we did in the Seville Declaration, and then we ratified it so the treaty was signed.
"That is the answer to that. But, obviously, France is a founding member, a very large country, a significant country. This is a difficulty. People can't say that it makes no difference because everybody has to ratify it.
"I think everybody has to take some time to think about this now."
He ruled out the possibility that the constitution could be changed given the difficulties encountered in its negotiation.
"Remember where this came from: it came from a convention which took several years. That was taken into an inter-governmental conference. We are talking about an enormous document. What bit would you be trying to renegotiate? It is 480 pages."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern concurred: "I don't see how this can be renegotiated because it took three years to put together. There was a huge amount of give and take.
"If you take something out of this there is bound to be a knock-on in some other country, particularly when you are dealing with 24 other countries," he said before leaving for Luxembourg.
"The French could try to agree a deal with other EU states along the lines of the Seville Declaration achieved by Ireland after the first Nice treaty referendum, which copper-fastened Ireland's exclusion from an EU common defence."
