Angela Merkel, German Chancellor:
"The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact."
(Telegraph, 29 June 2007)
Bertie Ahern, Irish Premier:
"90 per
cent of it is still there... these changes haven't made any dramatic
change to the substance of what was agreed back in 2004."
(Irish Independent, 24 June 2007)
Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister:
"The good thing is...that all the symbolic elements are gone, and that which really matters – the core – is left."
(Jyllands-Posten, 25 June 2007)
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, Chairman of the Constitutional Convention:
"This text is, in fact, a rerun of a great part of the substance of the Constitutional Treaty."
(Telegraph, 27 June 2007)
Margot Wallstrom, EU Commissioner:
"It’s essentially the same proposal as the old Constitution."
(Svenska Dagbladet, 26 June 2007)