If the French and the Dutch say " no" to the European Union (EU) Constitution on Sunday and Wednesday, they should re-run the referendums, Jean-Claude Juncker, EU's current rotating president and Luxembourg prime minister has said.
"If at the end of the ratification process, we do not manage to solve the problems, the countries that would have said No, would have to ask themselves the question again," Juncker said in a recent interview with Belgian daily Le Soir.
These words came after a statement by French prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin on Tuesday saying that another referendum is "not a perspective that France could accept".
The Luxembourg leader went on to say: "And if, even after the European Council deals with the problem, we do not manage to find the right answer, the treaty will not come into force."
Juncker stressed that a French No would be a "disaster" and excluded the possibility of imminent re-negotiations.
"The idea circulating in France that there could be an immediate re-negotiation (of the treaty) is absolutely unimaginable," he said.
According to Juncker, it would take "10 to 15 years" for another treaty to be established.
And a rejection of the Constitution would also lead "external observers" not to know what direction Europe wants to take anymore, which means that the "economy will not get better with a No," he pointed out.
This is why the ratification process should go on in other countries, even if France says No, the current EU president stressed.
The EU Constitution must be approved by all the 25 EU member states and aims at simplifying decision-making in the European Union following last year's expansion of the bloc to eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
The constitution must be approved either by parliamentary vote or by popular referendum in all the 25 countries before it can come into effect in 2006.
So far it has been approved by 10 member countries. But more difficult hurdles remain ahead as the constitution is put to the vote in Britain, the Netherlands and other more Euro-skeptical countries.