Saturday 16 February 2008

The Lisbon Treaty. Vote " No " For Freedom.

The Lisbon Treaty is one of the most serious challenges
facing anyone who cares about social justice.



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The treaty,if passed,will undermine democracy,lead to a greater militarisation and centralise power into the hands of a Euro elite.

The Lisbon Treaty,in its earlier form of the EU Constitution,was already rejected in the summer of 2005 by the people of France and the Netherlands.
However,the European Council and Commission ignored this democratic rejection.In response they fashioned the Lisbon Treaty,which is essentially the same document.

As Bertie Ahern,the Corporate puppet said,"Thankfully,they have not changed the substance… 90 per cent is still there."

Irish voters have been given a unique opportunity to give their opinion on the future of the EU.

We should protest at an undemocratic procedure which has denied the rest of the people of Europe a chance to vote.We should also oppose the treaty in its own right.

1. The Lisbon Treaty will lock Europe into a straight jacket of neo-liberalism.
It makes little provision for a social Europe.

2. It does nothing to address the lack of democracy in the EU and helps
create thebasis for an EU super-state.

3. It gives legal support to EU battle groups and NATO.
It also forces countries to increase military spending.






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Europe's Constitutional Treaty.

Monsieur D'Estaing's Threat to Democracy

During his life of public Service, the esteemed former President of France, Monsieur Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, has been considered by many to have laboured in the interests of his nation and Europe. Yet Giscard has gone on to preside over a forum of the Brussels élite producing a draft constitution for the future of Europe, which is nothing short of an attack on democracy in Europe and a subversion of Europe’s citizenry. Democracy, the very word is derived from the ancient Greek for ‘the rule of the people’, we in Europe invented it, its ideals have spread to the far corners of the globe, it has become our way of life and something we take for granted. It cannot be taken from us or turned into a symbolic chattel, left to pacify us while Giscard and his élite attempt to grab what they see as the power with real value. However, Giscard should take note that it is the way of history, through the European ages, that those, who attempt to take from the people that which is theirs, ultimately are seen for what they are and fail. His and his like’s usurpation of the European agenda must and will be ended.

The American founding father, Benjamin Franklin said “any society that would give up a little Liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both”. The actions of Giscard in carrying out what the Americans would call a log roll (when you roll your chosen log down a hill, it may pick up some leaves on its way but it will still be your log when it gets to the bottom), producing his leather bound draft constitution for the future of Europe, must one way or another force European citizens to pay attention and act. For unless we do, a serious and stealthy assault will have been carried out by Giscard and the European élite he personifies, which will further encroach on our libertarian democratic society and our ability to hold those that truly govern us accountable for their actions. If Giscard succeeds, Europe’s future may be headed down at best a foolhardy and at worst a very dangerous path.

The draft constitution is the embodiment of a political élite’s attempt to consolidate its oligarchic hold over the decision-making apparatus in the European Union, which affects in fundamental ways the daily aspects of our lives. The result of this constitution, should it come to pass, would be a Presidential Head of Europe, in the role of the President of the European Council, who will have global recognition as President of the Union, that we the people have no say in electing. Your vote, your opinion, is neither required nor desired. Perhaps Giscard, a man without mandate from the people, sees himself as the first Imperator. The plan also creates a foreign minister to oversee that tract in the draft, “member states shall actively and unreservedly support the Union’s common foreign and security policy in a spirit of loyalty and mutual solidarity. They shall refrain from action contrary to the Union’s interests or likely to undermine its effectiveness.” Of course the unelected President and Foreign Minister would be unlikely to display what Chirac earlier this year identified as the “bad behaviour” and signs of being “badly brought up” of the annoying democratically elected leaders of Central and Eastern European States. The President and Minister will be hand picked by the élite. Our European Minister for foreign affairs, who will suppose to represent our interests as Europeans in the world, again will not have been elected by us nor appointed by any particular individual elected by us. It is already the case that those of us, whose states have adopted the Euro, have no right to elect or reject anyone responsible for the policy that underpins the Euro in our pockets. The Governor of the European Central Bank, another élitist, is not accountable to us the citizenry directly or indirectly. This means that those Europeans living in Western Europe exist in a far less accountable society than they did only a decade or so ago. Sweden’s rejection of the Euro in its recent referendum is a sign that Europeans recognise this fact and require accountability from those setting monetary and other policy. The many areas over which we have or will cede power to this élite at the highest decision and policy-making level, include employment regulation, industry, transport, communications, justice, health, agriculture, fisheries and important aspects of defence. The national veto is to be abolished in no fewer than fifty new areas including immigration and asylum. The draft also sets in stone the fact that EU law will have primacy over member states.

Notice a trend here? Our intelligence is being insulted and our democratic rights, our liberty, those values that so many Europeans and others have fought and died for, are under assault. The fundamental ideals born of revolutionary France are betrayed. Our liberty and democracy are interwoven, try to subvert them and you threaten the success story of liberal democracy in Europe. Giscard and both his witting and unwitting (or witless) cronies must have their subterfuge terminated. The Brussels élite has grown fat and happy off the backs of hard working Europeans, giving superannuated or failed politicians sinecures atop a multiplying bureaucracy. This latest effort is a bridge too far.

It is essential to recognise a key truth and the rightness of at least one aspect of this élites effort, that being the most laudable goal which shrouds their interest, that the ever closer union of Europe and its peoples as aspired to in the 1957 Treaty of Rome, is a wise and desirable objective and what’s more, should be achievable. The European Union has undoubtedly served the people of Europe well, it is most apparent that it is capable of much more, which is why we must jealously guard it from those that would try to snatch its levers from us. A United Europe can, should and probably will provide for European peace, prosperity, strength, quality of life and ability to build not just a better Europe but a better and safer world. A United States of Europe, if structured properly could be great for Europeans and for the world.

It is tragic that Giscard has presided over an élite that has somehow managed to tarnish the image of what a United Europe could mean. They have created a perception in the minds of millions of Europeans, that European federalism stands for centralism, inefficiency, lack of accountability and overreaching control. Classic big government encroaching on the rights and sovereignty of the individual and the last redoubt of old style socialism writ large across our continent. The fact is a federal Europe, possessing an accountable administration with a clear European identity and position on the world stage, which has vested in it only those key disciplines that are best, and most efficiently, managed on a European level, embracing Europe’s precious diversity, devolving as much as possible to Europe’s regions, is a pretty good idea; to think otherwise is to somewhat indulge oneself in romantic nostalgia, enjoyable but not a realistic recipe for the future of Europe or the world. Giscard’s future does not provide the answer. The future of the Union must provide for the devolution of decision making to the regions of Europe and the creation of an environment where its peoples can prosper, while recognising their wider responsibilities and duties in what is today a very small world.

Most importantly, this figurehead for Europe, this President of the European Council, must not be appointed by the collected Prime Ministers of Europe. This little élite club intends to choose from amongst themselves, to appoint one of their retired or retiring own (any name spring to mind?) for the job. Securing what is what I call the ‘triple whammy retirement plan,’ the parliamentary pension, the ministerial pension and then the EU pension. This is a gouge of power and position by a clique. In the late 1700s, the champion of democracy James Madison said, “the censorial power is in the people over the government and not the government over the people”. His words ring true for Europeans today. Power belongs to us the citizens of Europe and can only be delegated by us the people, to any European leadership, we do not require middle men to interpret what is best for us, we are citizens not subjects and Europeans know the difference. This President of Europe must be accountable to us at the ballot box. We will vote to hire or fire him or her. We are not the uninformed, misguided and ignorant, sweaty masses that this élite takes us for. Giscard clearly indicated his attitude to the democratic process many years ago, when his party lost the French election to Francois Mitterand, Giscard quoted with mocking disdain, “French people deserve what they voted for”. We must elect this European President and hold him/her and any European foreign or other minister accountable. Then if we don’t like what we see we can do what democracy does best and at election time, vote to throw them out.

All of these goings on in Europe point to a current flaw in our European system of democracy whose structures are failing us through a combination of self interests, incompatibility with the modern world and inability to adapt. These failing structures are the embodiment of ‘old Europe’. Like the creaking analogue telephone systems of earlier decades, Europe’s system of nationally structured political parties, has now become a legacy system. You can tweak and push the system harder, you can give it a fresh coat of paint and add new parts, but what lies underneath is no longer capable of delivering the high performance that a new generation of Europeans need in this new century and millennium. The overhaul required may be considered by some to be radical. The old ‘analogue’ system must be left behind to wither away over time. European politics needs to go ‘digital’.

It is time for the creation of new truly pan-European political organisations that can provide a vision for a better future, for without them a Europe truly united cannot exist. When looking at America, the historian Clinton Rossiter said “No America without democracy, no democracy without politics, no politics without parties”. The same can be said for a democratic Europe. In the absence of mainstream, truly European political parties, the European political scene has become the plaything of the élites and special interest groups with no broader European vision. Such new parties or organisations would strive to address our needs at the levels where most decisions affecting us are, or should be made, the macro level in Europe, our broader community and at the most local level within the regions of Europe’s States. Europeans almost uniformly hold a low regard for much of the current political leadership in Europe while these so called leaders stumble from opinion poll to opinion poll with little other motive than to stay in power rather than out, whatever it takes.

In addition to protecting our future from power grabs à la Giscard, pan-European parties could start to address a number of issues of interest to all Europeans including genuine free trade, security, education, improved quality of life, improved health and longevity, support and encouragement for the family, justice and the independence of the judiciary, competitiveness, embracing technology and the knowledge economy, stimulating entrepreneurship the driver of quality job creation, providing fair opportunity for the developing world, the protection of fundamental human rights including the right of all of humanity to exercise a democratic choice to select those that govern them and the protection of the sovereignty of the individual. Europe must become something much broader than a physical place, it must become a living idea that others might embrace and eventually join.

The draft constitution does not follow the true path of constitutional liberalism that has served Europe, North America and the Western World so well in recent history. The foundations of libertarianism in the Roman Republic were slowly undone by the undermining of Rome’s own elite: there must never again be laurel crowns on the heads of power-grabbing Caesars. Here and now is a power grab of classical proportions, taking place in the young roots of a potentially great European future. It must be stopped. As political analyst, and Newsweek International editor, Dr Fareed Zakaria states in his book ‘The Future of Freedom’, “the lesson of Rome’s fall is that for the rule of law and liberty to endure, you need more than the good intentions of the rulers, for they may change (both the intentions and the rulers.)”

It is interesting to note that up until a most recent draft, Giscard’s constitution attempted to draw its legitimacy from the roots of democratic and libertarian ideas in ancient Greece and Rome, while failing to make any mention of Christianity’s influence on the make up of Europe’s present or historical character. Giscard’s draft went from Greece and Rome straight to the Enlightenment ideas of the seventeenth century, which is interesting given that period’s tendency of giving more power to central government, when European Christianity, when viewed from a secular perspective, was the champion of separateness from the state and through the age of reformation, the empowerment of the individual. Given his motives perhaps there was more than one reason for his not mentioning Christianity or its influences. As it happens, in the face of some criticism, Giscard and cronies decided to drop any references to the Enlightenment etc. rather than accept a compromise to recognise the beliefs of two thirds of Europe’s population in a supreme Deity by mentioning God in the draft constitution. For those that don’t believe in God there should not have been a problem, my children believe in Santa Claus, no one should take offence. Omitting God from the draft constitution reflects the imposition of the will of that small élite with a great sense of their own superiority. Given their attempt to render the will of the people obsolete, they could at least have pretended to acknowledge that something might outrank them, even if that was only God.

The draft constitution must be seen as one significant ingredient for what could develop into a medium term disaster for Europe. A continuation down the present path could lead to the rejection of the constitution in its present form via referenda in a small number of European States. If Giscard, Chirac, Schroder and co are to be believed, this may well lead the élites down a path to a two-tier Europe given the misnomer of a ‘fast track’ inner core. Such a fast track would only have downward gravity to account for its speed and the train would have no brakes going into a dark tunnel. If Germany and France embark down this siding and at the same time fail to rise to the challenge of reforming their creaking welfare burdens, they will have no choice but to seek shelter for their economies through trade protectionism in order to provide a short term stem to the resultant loss of jobs and investment. Add a few more blunders to the mix, which they are well capable of delivering and within less than a decade you could have a European Union that is disintegrating into something unpleasant and grown farther apart from her old ally the United States. In order to force their version of the constitution upon the people of Europe, the threats from the Brussels élite have already begun. A spokesman for European Commission President Romano Prodi recently stated “if it (the constitution) is not ratified, Europe faces the messy choice of grinding to a halt or having to expel one of its members.” This from a man with no mandate from the people. Europe’s citizens have by and large, become tired, disinterested and ignoring of our political leadership, who are for the most part, devoid of any great vision for our future. Many of Europe’s leaders have taken on a distinctively grey hue. This disillusionment in our leadership has resulted in most people not noticing what has been going on in the convention and how through the familiar drone of weekly political drivel, a coup of sorts has been hatched to snatch away our God given rights.

The forces at work within the Euro political élites and their predication to self-preservation above all else will prove to be a momentous force behind this power grab. Each State’s socialist and centrist senior political figures will call for the draft constitution or ‘treaty’ to be adopted, those on the extreme right and fringe parties will say that it shouldn’t, just making the other fellows look like they must be correct. The ‘grey’ leaders will advocate why the draft constitution represents a ‘fair deal’ a ‘reasonable compromise’ and an ‘historical achievement’. History is full of such historical achievements, from the Athenian’s execution of Socrates to Julius Caesar’s establishment of the Roman dictatorship, undermining the classical Republic, the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition the ascendancy of Josef Stalin to command of the Politburo. The election of the National Socialists as the largest single party in the German Weimer Republic and their being requested to form a government that would make Germany strong.

Giscard and his gang of acolytes can only be countered with a true and fair vision for a United Europe. It is time for those of us in Europe who have until now avoided airing our views, to mobilize and stop this suffocating tide. What’s more it is time for European entrepreneurs, intellectuals, professionals and most importantly, her hard working peoples, to come together under a new banner. Separate and distinct from groupings and parties based on legacy national organisations. Across the member States and the Accession states soon to join the Union plus those that have legitimate aspirations of joining, a new organisation must be formed. That organisation must lay out a clear, articulate and properly achievable vision for a better future for a Europe which will embrace and complement the world and which, rather than try to define itself in a contradistinction to the United States, will act as an equal partner and influence for the extension of real justice and liberty across the globe.

Such a political party, I will for the sake of discussion give it the Latin name ‘Libertas’, will need to challenge the ingrained make up of this codifying élite at the most local level, in local and regional elections, as well as running candidates at Member State and EU levels. The current old structures need shaking up. The silent majority of Europeans whose views and opinions are not reflected in the day-to-day humdrum of European politics are disillusioned. It is almost amusing to hear Giscard, his cronies and established old political parties across Europe, pronounce on how they are concerned with the lack of interest in politics by the young or by the populace in general. What they seem to fail to grasp is that people are tired of the same unimaginative stagnation, a lack of willingness to pursue true reform and a lack of courage to stand up to vociferous special interests groups in pursuit of shortsighted agendas. Politics driven by the daily headline.

The draft constitution is moving a step closer to implementation during the current Italian Presidency. Very fortunately for Europe, a new path to a better and more dynamic future can be divined. Giscard’s constitution can be driven into the darkness where it belongs by the referenda voters in Ireland, Denmark and France who will get to vote on it. The political élites in all the major parties will be advocating adopting the constitution unless between now and then, they embrace something better. I voted yes to the Nice Treaty because I believe in the Union, its expansion and the good it has done. I believe the Union can offer a great future for my four young children. No one is going to undermine their chances of living in a truly free and democratic society with respect for the rule of law and a leadership that is accountable to the people. The people of Europe must and will end Giscard’s escapade and a path for a better future for the Union will have been opened. Giscard’s draft constitution is illegitimate; his European President is illegitimate as legitimacy can only be conferred by us the people. Some in European politics would prefer to deny the Union such legitimacy, in order to protect their jobs and the illusion of control over decision making which is now, sometimes more practically vested in the EU. For the Union to be considered legitimate by its citizenry and the World, its ultimate leaders and figure heads must submit themselves to the rigours of what is a well founded European tradition: law abiding, libertarian, democracy. Giscard hasn’t asked anyone beyond his regional borders for a vote for over twenty years. He should never have presumed to take on a task of leading the charge to force through his constitution, nor should our leaders have let him.

It is time to map out a new and better United Europe. When given the opportunity, let’s start by burying Monsieur Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s draft in the spot we’ll mark with an X on the ballot paper.




(Thanks to Declan Ganley.)

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