A guide to the referenda on the EU Constitutional treaty

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).