[FR] Open letter to our European friends who want to vote no

Dear friends, You are the ones who will make the difference on 29 May.

For Maastricht, things were clear: for or against a single currency. We stood together for this federal advance. There was no mixing of voices between sovereignists, populists and federalists.

Today, your vote risks muddying the waters. While it is possible to criticise the Constitution, we must also ask ourselves what the point is in voting “no”. This Constitution is undoubtedly too long and, in places, poorly written. We would have liked a better one with a concise Part III. We can argue endlessly about the advantages of compiling existing treaties or of Napoleonic codification – a very French debate. The truth is that no state wanted to take the risk of unravelling the acquis communautaire of the last 50 years, starting with the very illiberal articles on the common agricultural policy. No state wanted to follow European Commission President Romano Prodi when he proposed a more flexible procedure for revising the famous Part III on Union policies. This is regrettable, but not scandalous, given that these texts had already been voted in favour of during previous consultations.