eurealist.co.uk

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he is “extremely concerned” about the latest polls both in the Netherlands and France, where 52 percent of voters are set to vote against the constitution on 29 May.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said “The government is very motivated, we are in the final phase and we will do what we can to get the ‘yes’.

This includes a government’s allocation of EUR 3.5 million to the ‘yes’ campaign for the 1 June referendum.

The provision has caused annoyance in the No campaign who are taking the government to court because they say this allocation breaks the Dutch referendum legislation which states that only EUR 1 million may be allocated to government campaigns and that the independent referendum commission must divide the funding between the pro and anti-campaigns.

The No campaign will request the court ban the State from using the extra funding, prevent the distribution of a new information brochure and order the removal of pro-constitution television, radio and press commercials.
If the court rules that the committee should be granted equal means to conduct a ‘no campaign’, it will not demand the aforementioned bans.