Not too much to say about this one, the news reports say it all: France, a founding member of the EU, votes no on adopting the EU Constitution. Euro,
mais naturellement, but
non to sociopolitical hugging. The Dutch, today, will also say no to it. It's pretty clear that while the EU knows that they need to band together economically to compete with ASEAN and the US, they're still bigoted people who'll eat their own before losing their socialist ways to take one for their team or allowing Turkey into the EU.
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to speak to a new friend, a Swede, who didn't think it was a big deal that France said no (although the rebounding US Dollar says otherwise - this'll be a short rebound, too) since his take was that they'll simply make a few edits and get consensus next time around. I tend to agree with him, even though the pro-yes noise and the analysis claimed that it would simply be too difficult to make changes and get them re-approved by the countries that have already ratified the EU Constitution. Although I agree with that, too, in the end, it comes out to be a wash: The EU Constitution will be (and is) a sign of how hamstrung and ineffective the EU is by their insistance on consensus. Their "great experiment" (as American Representative Democracy is often called) has fizzled in the test tube. The ones that voted yes (Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain) look like chumps and the ones that vote no look like the wicked, mustachio-twirling bad guys that they are.
With that said, it's sad that the US's largest trading partner and largest "ally" continues to prove that it'd rather dither than do. Some percentage of the vote may've been anti-American or at least anti-Capitalist - are we supposed to be reaffirmed in looking out only for ourselves? I think that's definately part of the message Europe is sending to us. (France, in particular, who's a staunch advocate of the idea of an EU that's on par with America, loses out with the failure of the EU Constitution but quickly gives itself points for appointing de Villepin Prime Minister.)
The markets, as mentioned, are sending the US Dollar on a high ("
Euro Slides to Eight-Month Low Vs. Dollar, AP/yahoo) and dropping the US 10 year bond prices to beneath 4%. That's due to France saying "non" - quite a vote of no-confidence for the Euro. I expect this to be temporary financial schadenfreude.
Edit:
Euro vs. Dollar Chart, BBC.
"An exit poll broadcast by state-financed NOS television said the constitution failed by a vote of 63 percent to 37 percent, an even worse defeat than the 55 percent "no" vote in France's referendum Sunday." -
Dutch Voters Reject EU Constitution, AP/sfgate - that's a lot, people, especially when they didn't think more than 40% would turn out.