Written question asked by Ian Davidson (Labour) on Wednesday, 23 March 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 6 April 2005. It was answered by Denis MacShane (Labour) on Wednesday, 6 April 2005 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what procedures he expects would be followed if (a) France, (b) the Netherlands and (c) the UK were to fail to ratify the Constitutional Treaty; what his policy will be should (a) France and (b) the Netherlands fail to ratify the Constitution for Europe following its referendum.

Answer: Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what procedures he expects would be followed if (a) France, (b) the Netherlands and (c) the UK were to fail to ratify the constitutional treaty; [224274] (2) what his policy will be should (a) France and (b) the Netherlands fail to ratify the constitution for Europe following its referendum. [224312] Mr. MacShane: Under the terms of the EU constitutional treaty, it is the separate obligation of each of the 25 signatories of the constitutional treaty to seek ratification of the treaty by the appropriate domestic arrangements of each member state. In the event of a member state being unable to ratify the treaty, and in line with declaration 30 of the treaty, the matter would be referred to the European Council.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 432 c1488W;432 c1484W; 224274;224312
Session: 2004-05
Subjects: Constitutions European Union European Constitution Treaty France Referendums Treaties Netherlands Implementing legislation
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk