Britain was poised yesterday to deal a further deadly blow to the beleaguered EU constitution with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw due to announce that London was shelving plans for a referendum on the treaty.
Despite the advice of his EU partners, notably France and Germany, who fear such a move would finally kill off the document, Straw was due to go before parliament to make an announcement.
A government official said the decision would allow time to reflect on the fallout from the rejection of the constitution by French and Dutch voters in separate referendums last week.
However, with analysts and some EU countries already saying the treaty is already virtually dead in the water, putting plans for a referendum in Britain on the ice is seen as tantamount to signing its death certificate.
The Guardian newspaper said Straw must tread a fine line between London's desire to avoid a hot potato at home and its duty to sustain the project of a united Europe, even if the constitution is effectively dead.
Polls in Britain show a strong majority against the treaty, which is aimed at streamlining and harmonizing how the EU is structured and run as it expands.
Britain's responsibility, it suggested in yesterday's editorial, was all the more acute as it prepared to assume the rotating EU presidency on July 1.
French President Jacques Chirac traveled to Berlin on Saturday for crisis talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, during which they agreed that the process of ratifying the constitution should move forward in countries of the 25-member bloc.
The office of Prime Minister Tony Blair would not be drawn on how it saw the way ahead.
"We believe that it is necessary to have a period of reflection in the lead-up to discussions at the Council of Ministers meeting," a Downing Street spokeswoman said, referring to a June 16-17 meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
The British government had earlier asked its French and German counterparts to spell out what their vision of the constitution's future was.
The Guardian warned Britain against any "triumphalism" over the fate of the constitution, even if it played into popular perceptions that Britain's long-held goal was to promote a divided Europe and assure its own hegemony.
"The enlarged EU is still groping towards a coherent but capacious identity that consigns not just Franco-German conflicts to the past but historic east-west divisions too," it said.
"The rejected constitution had its weaknesses. But it was a serious attempt to secure these goals," it added.
The governing Labour party, "though it has moderated its view of Europe in the light of experience, remains not just committed but recognizably European in outlook," it added.
The Guardian view contrasted with an editorial in the right-leaning Times newspaper that Straw should make it politely clear to Paris and Berlin that the "music has stopped" on the constitution.
The Times said Paris and Berlin wanted ratification to continue because either they wanted other capitals to share the blame for the constitution's demise or hoped a "yes" vote elsewhere would bring deviant French and Dutch voters back into line.
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