June-December 2005
- What they said ONE year BEFORE in the press conference at the EU summit on 17 June 2005 in Brussels after the French and Dutch "no" to the EU Constitution:
“Unfortunately the electorate did not realize that the constitutional treaty was specifically aimed at meeting their concerns"
"We believe that the ratification process must continue. There will not be a better treaty. There cannot be even the glimpse of any putative renegotiation.” - Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Council (at that time)
"The European institutions but also member states want to understand what European citizens want.(…) But we are not going to stop. We are not going to come to a hold. We got a plan. We got something to do."
“We do not want to give up the constitution nor do we want to carry on with business as usual and pretend nothing has happened.” - José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
“Not a single member state asked for the complete suspension of the ratification procedure. It would just have taken ONE to speak out against the procedure to stop the whole business."
"We are slightly changing the timetable in order to allow for an in depth debate and a wide ranging discussion.” - Josep Borrell, President of the European Parliament
