Europese Grondwet: overzicht berichtgeving internationale pers (en) - Main contents

Guardian - UK

"Mr Blair is right to make the case in an unapologetic tone. He needs to continue to do so and to be supported by others of all parties - including any Tories still professing to be in favour of UK membership of the EU ... This is truly a defining national moment".

Sun - UK

"Blair faces a massive wave of protest today from all sides, over his arrogance in pushing Britain where it does not want to go".

Le Monde - France

"The adoption of the European Constitutional project by the 25 Heads of EU governments is good news for Europe ... Europe needs to give itself a way of functioning with 25 members, soon to be 27 ... we should therefore be pleased that this has finally happened, even if it was not acheived without some pain".

Asahi Shimbun - Japan

"The fact that the individual countries have shared the common goal of steadily pushing toward integration, regardless of how many years may be required, has clearly helped strengthen European progress and drive ... Over half a century has passed since the first cautious steps by Europe in this direction. With the breakthrough agreement on the bloc's first constitution, the countries there appear to have at last arrived at a true milestone in the long and hard road to unification".

La libre Belgique - Belgium

"While the Constitution itself was finalised yesterday evening around 11 pm, with the consensus reached by the heads of state and government, it will not necessarily enter into force. Because the leaders have not foreseen anything to implement it in the countries which will ratify it, if one [other EU country's] parliament or a population decides to reject it. The referendum bomb is ticking..."

Economist - UK

"Europe's leaders might fairly congratulate themselves, since many thought no agreement was possible. On Friday night, they toasted with champagne. But after their celebration will come a hangover of bitterness over the rows at the summit. And hangover or no, the EU's leaders must now go straight to work selling Europe's more sceptical electorates on the virtues of their new constitution."

NRC Handelsblad - Netherlands

"Europe has a constitution for the first time during its existence", said the Belgian Prime Minister Verhofstadt yesterday night. But with a minimum of seven referenda in different EU countries to be expected - each of them being able to block the Constitution in the whole EU - that remains to be seen."

Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

"The negotiations at the Brussels Summit raise doubt as to whether the EU is really capable of profiting from this Constitution. Many of the 25 governments were not mainly concerned to make the EU more capable of decision-making, but rather to block decisions as easily as possible. This is how the block of blockers succeeded in damaging the Draft Constitution in several fields, in favour of national egoisms."

Der Tagesspiegel - Germany

"One of the most grave misunderstandings can be seen in the proud feelings over the common EU foreign minister - that the EU could overcome substantial divergences of opinion if it only introduces new institutions. The 25 EU states and especially the big six (Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Spain and Poland) each have their own foreign policy interests, for good reasons. A common EU foreign Minister will not be able to bridge these divides either."