THE HAGUE (AFP) -- The Dutch government on Friday refused to order a referendum on a new EU constitutional treaty which risks opening up new divisions over Europe.

Voters in the Netherlands and France in 2005 rejected an earlier proposal for an EU constitution in referendums, plunging the EU into a major political crisis. Much of Europe has been watching to see whether the Dutch government would call a popular vote.
But Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said: ""A referendum is unnecessary and undesirable.""
The new treaty will still have to be approved by the parliament and the senate.
And the government decision does not preclude a referendum being held on the treaty as the Dutch parliament could make its own proposal for a vote which might get a majority.
""It is up to each member state to decide on how it will ratify"" the treaty, a spokesman for the Portugese EU presidency said.
In the Netherlands the opposition Socialist Party has already announced it will submit a proposal for a treaty referendum. It said the government decision amounted to a ""vote of no confidence for Dutch citizens""
Balkenende stressed that the Dutch government decided a referendum would not be necessary because the new EU treaty had ""no constitutional aspirations"" and such a vote would effectively sideline parliament and the senate.
The cabinet stressed that the Netherlands had already gotten ""the maximum possible"" of its wishes in the new EU treaty and a chance that the EU partners would renegotiate the treaty if it was voted down again was ""extremely small"".
In 2005 over 60 percent of Dutch voters said ""no"" to the EU constitution, within days of a French rejection of the draft. The government here insisted Friday that the new treaty ""does justice"" to the Dutch complaints about the earlier document