What next for EU constitution?
 |  Balkenende (right) with Chirac. "All the more reason to vote yes," says the Dutch PM. |
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| | EU CONSTITUTION | * Permanent EU president to replace six-month rotating presidencies
* EU foreign minister to conduct common foreign policy
* Qualified majority voting in most areas with vetoes limited
* Commission to be reduced to 15 with 10 non-voting associates
* Policy areas covered by European Parliament up from 34 to 70
* Legally binding Charter of Fundamental Rights
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LONDON, England -- Several European countries said they would proceed with their own referendums on the EU constitution despite France's rejection, while Britain called for a period of "reflection" before deciding whether to press ahead with a vote.
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende called on voters to approve the new European constitution in a referendum in the Netherlands on Wednesday despite the French "No" vote.
"There is all the more reason to say 'Yes' so that some progress can be recorded with the constitutional treaty," Balkenende told journalists in The Hague. "Each country has its own responsibility.
"That means that Dutch voters have to weigh it up for themselves," he said. "The Netherlands has a lot to gain from this constitutional treaty. It is in the interest of Europe and of our own country."
Polls taken before the French vote showed that a majority of Dutch are also against the constitution. A Saturday survey put the "No" camp ahead 57-43 percent, and one pollster predicted a 60 percent "No" vote if France rejected the charter.
Ireland said it very much regretted the French decision but that it would proceed with its own referendum by a target date of November 2006.
A government spokesman in Dublin said it was important the EU move forward in a "considered and united way."
"For our part, the government is continuing to prepare for ratification of the European constitution," the spokesman said.
"The government remains firmly of the view that a European constitution is strongly in Ireland's interest and in that of the European Union as a whole."
Portuguese Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral said his country also would go ahead with a planned October referendum.
Portuguese political leaders have "said and resaid ... that we will carry out a referendum next October, unless very extraordinary circumstances completely alter the process and put all Europe truly on a new path", Freitas do Amaral said in comments carried on radio and television on Monday.
Prime Minister Jose Socrates has said he will seek a referendum, with the vote likely to be held simultaneously with municipal elections in October.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the EU needed time to reflect on the French result and that it was too soon to say if Britain would press ahead with a referendum.
"What is important now is to have time for reflection, with the Dutch referendum in a couple of days' time and the European Council in the middle of June, where all the leaders can discuss the implications of the vote that has taken place," he told reporters in Tuscany, where he is concluding an Italian visit.
"If there is a constitutional treaty to vote upon, we will have a vote in Britain before ratifying it," Blair said.
"But I think we now have to see what happens in the Dutch referendum in a couple of days' time. We have to have discussion at the European Council," he added.
Blair's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, told BBC radio he would address parliament next Monday on the issue.
"We don't have to make a decision today about this," Straw said. "I think the appropriate place for that to be announced is to the British parliament and there'll be a statement from me in exactly a week's time when parliament reassembles."
Asked whether he would announce a definite "Yes" or "No" to a British vote, Straw said that decision lay with his Cabinet colleagues. However, he acknowledged next Monday would be "one of the appropriate moments to make this clear."
Blair looks certain to play a leading role in deciding how the EU should proceed as Britain takes over the bloc's rotating presidency for six months from July 1.
Other reaction
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said France's rejection was "very regrettable" but does not mean an end to the French-German partnership in Europe.
"The referendum result is a blow for the constitutional process, but not the end of it," Schroeder said in a statement. "It is also not the end of the German-French partnership in and for Europe."
Christian Democrat Chairwoman Angela Merkel, Schroeder's challenger in early German elections, expressed regret at the French vote and cautioned against overstretching the bloc.
"We must learn the right lessons for the future," said Merkel, who was confirmed Monday as Schroeder's challenger in elections expected in September. "If we overstretch the union and do not reduce the excess of bureaucracy, it will be difficult for us to succeed."
Merkel, unlike Schroeder, opposes Turkey's bid to join the EU, arguing that the largely Muslim country would overextend the bloc both culturally and financially. She advocates a vaguely defined "privileged partnership" that falls short of full membership.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, however, said the French vote would not affect Ankara's plans to begin long-delayed EU entry talks in October.
"This result is something which concerns the French public ... not Turkey," the state Anatolian news agency quoted Gul as saying. "The start of negotiations is in our hands... What would prevent Turkey starting EU negotiations is doing things contrary to EU standards or not fulfilling the things it has promised to do," Gul said.
Former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato, who helped draft the EU constitution, suggested that some of the treaty's key provisions be adopted separately, including the new position of European foreign minister.
"All told, I consider my constitution a child on the verge of death, from which you can transplant some organs into the Treaty of Nice," Amato said in an interview Monday in Milan daily Corriere della Sera. The Nice Treaty paved the way for the European Union's enlargement.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said leaders "need to do more to explain the true dimension of what is at stake, and the nature of the solutions which only Europe can bring."
"There will be time for that debate, of course, but I think one thing is sure: we should, together, try to put Europe back on track again," Barroso said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: "The French people have expressed their choice. They have ultimately preferred not to support the Treaty establishing the European Constitution. I evidently respect their choice, but I also regret it an equal measure of sincerity. Europe needs its people, but each one of us also needs her. Europe is, above all, a venture of hope."
Former Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, president of the Party of European Socialists, said: "This is a sad, sad day for France, and a sad day for Europe too. But rumors of the constitution's demise have been greatly exaggerated. We must not read the "Non" in France as a "Non" to Europe. This is not the last word on the European constitution."
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
