History in Europe has slowed down. Further European integration has been put on ice; it's a 'non-starter' because in a massive turnout, French voters overwhelmingly said 'non' to a new constitution on Sunday. The Dutch also said 'no' in a referendum on Wednesday. The 400-page constitution, announced in triumphant calls by leaders as representing the biggest, most historic decision in generations, is now dead on arrival. The constitution was put together by political elites in a process led by French former president Valery Giscard d'Estaing, and the European Union's 25 members signed up in Rome in October. It brought together sensible new procedures for managing an enlarged union and called grandly for a European bill of rights, a European president, a foreign policy tsar for Europe, and it followed the infuriating European bureaucratic device of constructive ambiguity. Thus it tried to be everything for everybody and therefore pleased no one. The constitution was just too grand. On one hand, politicians said it was simply about process, but then said it was the most monumental decision people would make in their lifetime. The constitution has already been ratified by nine countries; however, it has to be accepted unanimously by all EU members. The people are now saying 'enough is enough'. Unemployment is at 10 per cent in France. Germany suffers with 5 million unemployed - a figure not seen since the Great Depression. The scene is set for major reaction. It is normal for politicians to want it both ways. But when, for years, they attack the European bureaucracy in Brussels for all their domestic problems, and then ask the voters to give Brussels more power - it did not wash. Even after the result, some leaders were stunning in their condescension. A former president of the European Commission sadly shook his head and said he was displeased. Pardon? Some leaders are already saying there should be another vote. A famous poem by Bertolt Brecht after the East German government suppressed workers in 1953 comes to mind. The head of the East German writers union proposed that 'the people had previously thrown away the government's confidence ... and could only regain it through redoubled work'. Brecht asked: 'Wouldn't it be simpler if the government simply dissolved the people and elected another?' The glue which held together Europe previously was a generation that had experienced two devastating world wars. The recent expansion of the EU was driven by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The genius and generosity of the EU was that the rich countries - France, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands - opened their markets to poorer neighbours and paid out millions of dollars to help them restructure their economies. This policy was supposed to be moved eastwards to rebuild the former Soviet colonies. A big fear of voters was the noble objective of European leaders to get Turkey into the European family. Turkey would become the largest country in Europe, and it is 99 per cent Muslim. High unemployment, fear of Polish workers flooding into Europe, competition from the rising economic giants, China and India, drove up the popularity of anti-migrant protectionists who attacked what they called 'neo-liberal Anglo-Saxon economic strategies'. It's not the end of the union. But the idea of a European superpower has been dealt a mortal blow. The people don't want their political power outsourced. The world needs a strong, growing Europe but many of the old European nations just seem politically incapable of making the hard economic decisions. Interestingly, all the 'no' voters wanted a successful Europe; perhaps the argument is between those who want a sort of United Nations of Europe, but not a United States of Europe? Mike Moore is a former prime minister of New Zealand and was director-general of the World Trade Organisation