Background and Commentary on the results of the Survey from June 10, 2004:

 

Parties participating in the elections for the European Parliament were contacted several times by telephone and email. They received a survey questionnaire asking: Is your party in favour of a referendum on the EU Constitution in your country and/or in all EU member states? In addition they received a survey questionnaire which they were asked to forward to all official candidates of their parties, asking the candidates the same question.

 

Some parties spoke in favour of a referendum in just their country, as they did not want to interfere in the internal matters of other countries.

 

Due to the importance of the EU Constitution most of the parties spoke in favour of an EU-wide referendum held on the same day. There are different views on how this EU-wide referendum could be organized.

 

In the light of Art. 48 of the applying EU Treaties, and according to the "Declaration in the Final Act of Signature of the Treaty Establishing the Constitution" in the EU Constitution, drawn up by the Convention on the Future of Europe, the ERC is demanding that the results of the national referendums should apply only for single countries, so that no country is outvoted!

 

Only a few parties declared publicly that they are NOT in favour of a referendum on the EU Constitution. The ERC would like to express its respect to those who are willing to publicly state their position.

 

About 75% of the parties did not want to make an official statement as they have not yet decided on this issue, or fear having a bad publicity in their election campaign.

 

Concerning the candidates, only some parties forwarded the questionnaires to their candidates, mainly the ones who are in favour of a referendum on the EU Constitution. Only a handful of candidates from a party that is against a referendum stated that they themselves are in favour.