The treaty is basically the constitution minus some symbolic things (and an exemption from the Fundamental Rights for the Brits.) Henry Farrell had it right a couple of days ago.
This is a quite substantial set of changes. It should be presented to people so that they can vote on it (and taken off the table if they don’t want it). It’s a shame and a disgrace that the EU member states have responded to the 2005 defeat by going back to their old practice of seeking to achieve integration by boring the general public into submission, and a very substantial backward step. If people aren’t willing to sign up to major changes in the EU system of governance, then too bad for the EU system of governance.
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June 24th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
And I still haven’t managed to find a copy of the new treaty online… So much for Wallstrom’s Plan D.
Has anyone else tracked it down? I am not talking about the Presidency Conclusions dated June 21/22 and published the 23rd. (http://www.tiny.cc/VT8qz)
June 24th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
Not a treaty yet, just a mandate for Socrates to write one.
Here it is:
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/ec/94932.pdf
Mind you - the text of the mandate itself starts only on page 16.
June 24th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
“It’s a shame and a disgrace that the EU member states have responded to the 2005 defeat by going back to their old practice of seeking to achieve integration by boring the general public into submission, and a very substantial backward step.”
Oh don’t be ridiculous, David.
The EU member states are responding to the fact that the outcome of these referenda and suchlike have nothing to do with the population’s actual feelings on the constitution but turn into (very expensive) polls on feelings regarding the government of each particular state at the time.
You have to deal with the electorate you have, not the electorate you wish you had, and the European electorate have proved themselves to be a bunch of twits in this regard. (And I say this not because of the outcomes, but because of why they chose those outcomes.)
June 24th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
>The EU member states are responding >to the fact that the outcome of these >referenda and suchlike have nothing >to do with the population’s actual >feelings on the constitution but turn >into (very expensive) polls on
That’s nothing but a fundamental attack on referenda themselves. I can equally correctly simply assert that they voted on the EU as such.
June 24th, 2007 at 8:47 pm
This treaty may be enough to pass by the Dutch Parliament, but already th far-left AND the far-right have risen to the occasion to move Balkenende (PM) toward another referendum. This would be disasterous for the netherlands i imagine.
Overall it seems the EU is costing more and more political capital everytime a national leader gets involved in it.
June 24th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
Thanks, Luis, but the document you refer to is the press release on the Presidency Conclusions + treaty draft I referred to dated 21/22 June. I would like to see the changes that are made to this draft.
June 25th, 2007 at 9:11 am
I hear the sound of points being missed…what this is really about is the fight to defend Europe from being laid open to US-led rapacious neo-liberal capitalism. This - the ‘open market’ - is what Blair was after and failed to get. He was turned over by the foxy Sarkozy, who far from being the neo-con outrider that the Anglophone right hoped for is increasingly looking like a doughty defender of not only French interests but the traditional Gallic values of humanity and real enlightened liberalism. The Polish nonsense was just a sideshow, with Sarko stealing the opportunity to win kudos by saving Merkel’s embarrasment.
June 25th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
This - the ‘open market’ - is what Blair was after and failed to get.
Oh, for Christ’s sake. Enough with the denialism. It’s in the sodding Treaty of Rome! Jesus Monnet and St. Robert Schuman put it there!
June 25th, 2007 at 1:24 pm
Careful, Alex! Up until now, my most reliable indicator for when Europeans stop thinking and start ranting has been the use of the word “neo-liberal.” If you succeed in insisting on pesky things like facts, I’m likely to lose a perfectly good shortcut.
June 26th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Which is odd. There should be a least a noticeable minority which considers individual members too small to set up rules, but thinks that the EU as a whole is large enough to force rules on the market.
Did the enlargement kill all hopes of that group?
If the left as a whole turns against the EU, the EU is in deep trouble.