We call upon all countries at least to take a break from the ratification procedure and to reflect upon the reasons for the 'no' vote.

The question in terms of this bloc is whether to develop the ratification procedures.

By then, both the new and the existing Member States will have completed their national ratification procedures.

I called for the question to be amended to ask the Council to ensure a fair and free ratification procedure.

This would make it necessary to continue with the ratification procedure.

I am very optimistic that we will be able to complete the ratification procedure towards the end of the year.

Now what we need is the ratification procedures to be concluded.

Nine Member States have now concluded their ratification procedures and most of the others are about to do so.

Therefore we were not able to agree to the ratification procedure at this point.

Both these agreements had since entered into force with the completion of ratification procedures.