the constitution covered a lot more than just a single currency, it also covered working hours, (not a problem for britain as they have the longet working hours in britain). trade agreements, imegration/emigration laws... it contains rules abuot how many representatives from each country would be needed to attend a european parliment, (effectivly settnig limits since some original member countres feel the need to send a lot of polititians, which tends to bog down meetings with the idea that more people, or original member status means a stronger political voice).
it also affected the countries that would be a part of Europe
and yes, basic standards throughout the countires that are a part of the EU...
It's not an insult to spain, it's just stating a fact that in a lot of very commercialised resport towns there are lower standards of health and hygiene than are enforced in other countries, and yes there are certain other countries with even lower standards than Spain... the argument isn't really about that though...
France voted no based on two very important issues, firstly the rate of growth of europe, (turkey is said to want to join Europe -turkey is not even in the contenent that is Europe!!!
The draft consititution also saw a road map for trade to be centred around britani as a trade leader, again the french didn't like this...
when france first joined Europe they (france) with a weak economy benefitted from original member countries such as Germany and spain who both had stronger economies...
Franc is still a weaker country than Britain, so I don't understand the second argument either, Frankly the three economically strongest countries in Europe are Germany, Spain and Britain, it wouldn't make sense for the new 'European trade commision' to be led from an economically weak country...
thirdly, france is sufering from a huge unemployment crisis, something like 10% of the country is unemployed, the people are rebelling against the government for what they see as bad decision making,
In fairness eastern block European countries have a much larger rate of unemploymet of skilled workers, (in britain we have unemployment but also have a skills shortage), (that should tell you something about the erasons the unemployed are unemployed!)...
people see the joining of countries to Europe as the weakening of borders, people barely holding onto their jobs fear the Eastern Europeans who they feel will come and 'steal' their jobs...
Now here is my 2 cents...
I think it's pretty pathetic for France to say no to a constitution based on those decisions...
If there were a properly united europe, (the Union currently contanis 25 countries) it woul be the worlds strongest Super power...
instead we have people who want to 'look after their own'... Don't get me wrong, I want to keep the pound, if you lok back at old threads I've alwas said that joining the Euro ties the economy to tightly to other countries, other countries that are not as necessarilly as stable... when one country starts to topple they bring the other financially tied countries with it... and I'm glad we aren't a part of it...
however I don't think that any one should let xenophobia, ignorance, and interal politics get in the way of what will (or could be) the future of politics for an entire contenant, and the world. (as I said a truly united Europe would be the worlds biggest trading source, the worldsbiggest political power) -I guess all that we have to do is remove all of the corruption first!!