Denmark postpones referendum on EU Constitution

    STOCKHOLM, June 17 (Xinhuanet) --  Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen postponed his country's referendum on EU Constitution after European leaders decided to take a pause for reflection over the future of the European project, Ritzau news bureau reported on Friday.

    "Based on that background, we agree to postpone the Danish referendum on September 27," announced Rasmussen. "There's no ground to ask Danes to participate in a referendum. We accept the consequences of that and have postponed."

    The chief cause for the postponement was the EU leaders' inability to come to a decision over the future of the draft constitutional treaty, which was gravely wounded by French and Dutch "no" votes. EU leaders will meet again in one year after their period of reflection.

    For Rasmussen, the time will be best used to come up with ways to more directly involve Europeans in the EU process.

    "Now we've put the focus on how we can more directly involve Europeans in the debate over the EU's future," he said.

    Before announcing that the referendum was postponed, Rasmussen informed other Danish political parties supporting the treaty of his decision. Support for the move was unanimous.

Sweden puts off parliamentary ratification

    Sweden has decided to put off its parliamentary ratification of the European Union constitution following Thursday's decision by EU leaders for a period of reflection on the proposed new constitution, local media reported on Friday.

    "We will postpone our ratification indefinitely," Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson told Radio Sweden on Friday.The parliament in Stockholm had been scheduled to vote on the constitution in December.

    "We'll come back sometime next autumn and decide if and when tomove ahead with the ratification," Persson said.

    The freeze comes after the voters of France and the Netherlandsrejected the constitution.

    Meanwhile, as the EU summit in Brussels has turned to the controversial issue of a long-term budget, the Swedish Prime Minister said he is very pessimistic about striking a deal. Persson told reporters it would be better to take another year and continue to negotiate. Enditem