EU-wide poll ‘the key’ to charter impasse

AUSTRIAN Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel believes a continent-wide referendum on the EU constitution could be used to resolve the impasse over the charter, according to a newspaper interview published yesterday.

The stalemate started with the charter’s rejection in mid-2005 by French and Dutch voters. Last month, the 25 EU leaders extended by a year their “pause for reflection” on what to do next.

Mr Schuessel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, was quoted as telling Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper that “something new” was needed “that could be a new name, for instance treaty or basic law.”