Até Mais, Lisbon

[Peter Korsten]

Niall Munnelly schreef:

> That's an interesting way to look at it.  I'd see it as a
> handy tool for rejecting a change that, while not
> substantially different from previously rejected
> propositions, has been presented as a mess of supersedures
> and obfuscations buried in three documents, rather than one.

So what exactly was wrong with the Constitution, and with the Lisbon 
Treaty? Could you point out what proposed changes to the EU's structure 
and functioning you didn't like?

Is it the loss of the commissioner? Making the ECB and the euro 
official? Increasing the power of both the EP and the national 
parliaments? The foreign representative?  The charter for fundamental 
rights? The streamlining of decision-making, so that no individual state 
can block legislation for all?

Just curious, you know.

> If one doesn't know what it's about, that's not necessarily
> the fault of the voting public.  Of course, there's also the
> informed voter who simply refuses to support the treaty.

Oh, come off it. One of the reason there was a 'no' vote was apparently 
the weather, which favoured the more determines opponents. How can the 
future direction of 450 million people be determined by the weather and 
by the 1.5 million Irish that actually bother to show up for the referendum?

Just like it's doubtful that the Spaniards, Luxembourgers and Romanians 
knew exactly what they supported when they voted in favour of the 
Constitution in their referendums, it's doubtful that the French, Dutch 
and Irish population had a very clear idea what it was all about when 
they rejected that same constitution and Lisbon Treaty.

But the democratically elected government that supported the treaty did 
know what they supported.

> I wonder what will happen next.

Best to scrap the current EU institutions, draw up a new constitution or 
whatever and have each current and future member re-apply for 
membership. If they don't decide to join, they can dump the euro, get 
work permits for their nationals working abroad, say bye-bye to EU funds 
and start paying import fees again.

- Peter