A guide to the referenda on the EU Constitutional treaty

A guide to the referenda on the EU Constitutional treaty

Briefing note
Daniel Keohane
01 October 2004

On 29 October 2004 EU leaders will formally sign the new EU constitutional treaty at a ceremony in Rome. The 25 EU governments will then have two years to ratify the document. Governments can ratify the constitutional treaty by a parliamentary vote, or they can hold a referendum – in a few member-states a referendum is mandatory. Nine EU governments have said they will hold referenda on the constitutional treaty. Only six governments so far have ruled out a plebiscite and the remaining ten countries have not yet decided how they will ratify the document.

Daniel Keohane was a senior research fellow at the CER (2001-2006).

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