Finger still in the Dyke

Federalist hopes of reviving the draft European Union constitution were snuffed out yesterday when the Dutch foreign minister, Bernard Bot, said the treaty was "dead".

He swept away months of euphemisms and half-truths, as European leaders struggled to avoid being the first to declare an end to the constitutional project, after its rejection in referendums by French and Dutch voters.

Earlier this week Wolfgang Schussel, the Austrian chancellor, insisted that the constitution was "not dead, but in the middle of a ratification process".The Daily Telegraph


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