You are in:
- Contents » EU Constitution
Lisbon Treaty Fallout Continues
"The EU is the citizens' friend"
The EU elite is claiming that the Lisbon Treaty, comprehensively rejected by Irish voters on Thursday, is shaken but not stirred. Governments have been instructed to continue ratifying the Treaty as if the Irish vote never happened, something Gordon Brown appears prepared to do.
First off comes the cry that 3 million registered voters in Ireland shouldn't be able to derail a treaty designed to bring the blessings of an integrated Europe to 490 million, a theme supported by the BBC but neatly snipped by Guido, who demonstrates that as the other 26 nations are ratifying by parliamentary vote, it's more like around 9,000 MPs deciding on the future of Europe for 490 million.
The loudest lament for the Irish vote comes from Will Hutton in the Observer, who says that the EU cannot be "derailed by lies and disinformation."
He blames "populist demagogues" for befuddling Irish voters, and attacks referenda, the tool of the "demagogue, the dissimulator and scaremonger, as Hitler and Mussolini, lovers of referendums, proved."
"The EU is the citizens' friend," he writes, arguing that "We need this Europe - to fight climate change, to ensure security of energy and food, to underwrite our prosperity and to fight for our common interests."
What next, then, in Hutton's "citizens' friend" EU? Ireland, he says, will have to vote again on the same treaty in 2009.
Like Robert Mugabe, the EU leadership demands a second vote when the first is not to its satisfaction.
Wolfgang Münchau, writing in the Financial Times agrees with Hutton, arguing that the EU will "play hardball" with Ireland and stressing the importance of the "26-to-1" situation if the other nations continue to ratify Lisbon. Eight nations, including Britain, are yet to ratify. Public pressure is on Britain's Gordon Brown to stand alongside Ireland and force Europe to rethink the treaty. Brown, as we noted above, is more likely to continue with the process of ratification.
Münchau says that despite claims from Eurocrats that there is "no plan B" if the treaty is rejected, one has clearly been agreed, and that is to bully Ireland into submission. The "citzens' friend?" Don't make us laugh.
It's disappointing clear, though, that the second referendum is the most likely course, along with the possibility of a "legal bridge" linking Ireland to the Lisbon Treaty, which would incorporate it into the system in all but name.
Bruno Waterfield says that already 85 percent of Lisbon can be incorporated using existing laws by "stealth"; the EU Referendum Blog agrees, though goes further, arguing that those elements which will be introduced are likely to be the constitutional institutional/governmental reforms.
Despite the last three popular votes on the EU Constitution delivering resounding NO verdicts, the federalist dynamic of the European Union has continued unabated; there is rarely little for opponents of closer integration to celebrate, and having the support of the people is little consolation when their views are continually steamrollered by the EU.
Last word, though to Dan Hannan MEP:
"They really don’t get it, these Eurocrats. I’ve just watched Margot Wallström, the Commission Vice-President, trying to explain away the results. It was important, she said, to work out what the Irish people had really been voting against.
"Let me help you there, Margot. My guess is that they were voting against the Lisbon Treaty. The giveaway was the ballot paper, which asked whether people agreed to amend the Irish constitution so as to, you know, approve the Lisbon Treaty (...)
"But how much longer can Euro-Commissioners keep pretending that people have misunderstood the question? When the French voted “No”, it was argued that they were really voting against Chirac. When the Dutch voted “No”, it was claimed that they were really voting against Turkish accession. Do try and get it through your skulls, chaps, that people are voting against the proposition actually before them. They’ve had enough of “ever-closer union”. They’ve had enough of directives and regulations. They’ve had enough of being pushed around.
"And – I’m sorry to have to say this, Margot – they’ve had enough of you. They’ve had enough of the EU’s politburo, with its lies and its arrogance, its corrupt expenses system, its disdain for democracy, its contempt for its own rules."
