Portugal, Spain to hold referendums on EU constitution

Spain and Portugal yesterday became the latest EU member states to say they would hold referendums on the EU constitution, highlighting the risk that a single nation's citizens could sink the charter.

All 25 member states must ratify the long-delayed charter in their parliaments, but the growing number of countries planning to hold referendums increases the chance that a single national vote will block its passage.

The constitution, a new set of rules for the enlarged bloc, was finally approved on Friday at an EU summit in Brussels after months of haggling, and all 25 EU members must ratify it by the end of 2006.

Britain, Denmark, Ireland and Luxembourg have said they will hold referendums, and Belgium, the Czech Republic and Poland are likely to do so.

Britain is the biggest member to plan a plebiscite, and the Labour government faces an uphill task in persuading its traditionally eurosceptic citizens to vote for the document.

A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times newspaper showed British voters would reject the constitution by 49 per cent to 23, while an ICM poll for the cross-party Vote No campaign showed 57 per cent opposed it.

Spain has traditionally been firmly pro-European, and a recent poll by the state Centre for Sociological Investigations showed that 77 per cent of respondents said they were at least somewhat in favour of the European Union.

Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos predicted on Saturday Spain would be among the first countries to ratify the new charter.

Spain's Socialist government, elected in March, eased the way for the charter by abandoning the position of its predecessors who refused to accept changes to a voting system that would reduce their power in the bloc.

The opposition Popular Party accused the government of weakness in negotiating the deal, but party leader Mariano Rajoy said this did not mean he would campaign against the charter.

"I would not want my criticism of the government over the way it carried out the negotiations to be understood as an impediment to (passing) the new constitution," Mr Rajoy told lawmakers yesterday.

In Portugal, a major beneficiary of EU development funds in the past, a Eurobarometer poll released by the European Commission in February showed that 58 per cent of Portuguese considered a constitution "vital" for the proper functioning of EU institutions.

Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, in remarks carried on private TSF radio, said the Portuguese referendum would probably be held early next year.

He also reiterated that he was not a candidate to succeed Romano Prodi as European Commission president.

The Brussels summit failed to agree on a successor to Mr Prodi and negotiations on possible candidates are still going on.