Shut Up, They Explained.

From the International Herald Tribune:

The ratification of the European Union constitutional treaty must go on, Europe's leaders declared on Wednesday even after the Netherlands followed France and overwhelmingly rejected the treaty in a national referendum.  Seeking to play down the sense of crisis, the European Union refused to pronounce the constitution dead. "The debate must continue," said Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg and the current holder of the rotating EU presidency.

Neither the terms of the very law they are seeking to enact, nor the manifest will of popular majorities gets any respect from the European elite.

Update: Britain has shelved plans for a referendum on the European Constitution.  From the Telegraph:

Plans for a referendum on the EU Constitution will be shelved by Jack Straw next week in a move aimed at persuading fellow European leaders to recognise that their ambitions for deeper integration are dead.

The Foreign Secretary will tell MPs in the House of Commons on Monday that the emphatic No votes in France and the Netherlands cannot be ignored and that the people of Europe appear not to want the constitutional treaty.

At least some public officials on the yonder side of the Atlantic are not contemptuous of popular will.  But of course, these are British politicians and they're not exactly on the continent, are they?