No-sayers must decide on EU treaty changes

Vienna, May 29: France, the Netherlands and those European Union members which have not yet approved the bloc's planned constitution must say in the next months if they want the draft revised or withdrawn, EU president Austria said.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said in an interview with daily newspaper Die Presse that a relaunch of the treaty, rejected by French and Dutch voters last year, had to include something new, but not necessarily a change of the text.

''Those who have said 'No' or haven't ratified yet have to say'' whether the constitution can be put to a vote again unchanged, Schuessel said in the interview.

''They have to say what their position is in the next months, so that we get some clarity -- if a modification is enough, or if they want to continue on the basis of the existing draft at all,'' Schuessel said.

EU foreign ministers raised the possibility on Sunday of changing the name of the stalled constitution as part of a plan to rescue key parts of the charter aimed at streamlining EU decision-making and giving the bloc its own president.

Schuessel also suggested that changes in the labelling of the treaty might be a way to deal with the situation.

''It's clear that there has to be something new. But this can be something interpretative, or a modality,'' Schuessel said. ''It's to early to talk about that now.''

Reuters