LUXEMBOURG (AP) -Luxembourg approved the European Union’s proposed constitution Sunday despite uncertainty over its future, prompting the nation’s premier to say it had put the charter “back on the European agenda” after recent rejections.

Luxembourg’s vote means a majority of the union’s nations – 13 out of 25 – have approved the constitution. However, the bloc’s leaders have frozen the ratification process after the charter was rejected in French and Dutch voters in late spring.

The constitution needs unanimous approval to take effect, and leaders in France and The Netherlands have said they will not hold a second vote.

But Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker insisted the constitution was not dead after 56.52 percent of voters in Luxembourg approved it. Officials said 43.48 percent voted against it.

“If Luxembourg had voted ‘no’ today, that would have been the final shot in the head for the constitution,” Juncker said. “As Luxembourg has said ‘yes’ the process can go ahead. There is a way for the European constitution to be adopted.”

Juncker said Luxembourg had put the constitution “back on the European agenda,” and he rejected widespread beliefs the treaty was all but dead because it had failed to pass in France and The Netherlands.

The charter was designed to provide such trappings of statehood as a flag, a president and an anthem for what has largely been an economic bloc, while creating a more integrated political entity of 450 million people with a bigger economy than America’s.

Its opponents argue the constitution does not address growing concerns about unemployment and worry about loss of national control and identity to a stronger, unaccountable EU bureaucracy.

“After the ‘yes’ of several countries the process will go its way and we will see the positions of the countries that said ‘no”‘ at the end of the ratification period, Juncker said. The premier had raised the stakes in Sunday’s vote by saying he would resign if his country rejected the constitution.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Luxembourg’s approval was a “strong signal” that voters still think a constitution can help build “a more democratic Europe.”

But he acknowledged the constitution’s future remained “uncertain.”

Former Commission president and Luxembourger Jacques Santer said the vote showed citizens “identified with Europe,” despite concerns elsewhere in the bloc that the EU was out of touch with its citizens.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in Berlin that the result “was a call on all Europeans to look for ways to overcome the current crisis.”

Some 223,000 people were eligible to cast ballots in Luxembourg’s referendum, which was only the second in the Grand Duchy’s history. Voting is mandatory for Luxembourg’s citizens.

Luxembourg was the first EU country to go ahead with a referendum following the Dutch and French ‘no’ votes. Britain, Denmark and Portugal have scrapped their planned referendums.

The countries that approved the charter either through parliamentary vote or a referendum include Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece and Austria.

Juncker dismissed claims that Luxembourg should have canceled its referendum until the future of the constitution is clearer.

“Luxembourg … has the perfect right to give its view,” he said. “If Luxembourg had voted ‘no’ on May 29, do you think France would have canceled its referendum on June 10?”

Many questions remain concerning the EU’s future – not least whether it will give full membership to Turkey and whether it should create the posts of EU president and foreign minister.

Luxembourg, a wealthy nation of 450,000 people wedged between France, Germany and Belgium, has traditionally been one of the EU’s most ardent supporters.

AP-ES-07-10-05 1602EDT

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