European affairs minister Frans Timmermans was wrong to ask the Council of State to advise whether or not the Netherlands should hold a referendum on the new European treaty, according to top legal experts in Friday’s Volkskrant.

‘You should not be asking the Council to advise political questions because you yourself don’t know the answer,’ Jan Vis, a former member of the Council, told the paper. The Council is not a constitutional court and its role should be confined to that of advising over legislation, he said.
The Netherlands rejected the European constitution in a referendum in 2005. MPs are divided on the need to hold a new referendum over the revised treaty.