AGM Report 2001-2002

TEAM’s Sixth Annual General Meeting, Prague, Czech Republic, March 9-10, 2002.

This report was presented at TEAM’s Sixth Annual General Meeting in Prague, following the AGM in Stockholm March 23-24, 2001, the face-to-face meeting of the TEAM Board in Malta September 15-16, and the Council Meeting in Vienna in November 10-11.

TEAM Affiliates

During the year the Board decided to suspend the No to EU organisation in Poland as observer affiliates of TEAM. It came to the Board’s knowledge that the No to EU has a website with racist content, which is a clear violation of the TEAM Constitution. Since the No to EU has not taken any action to close the website or expel those of its members or supporters with connection to extremist movements, the Board decided to recommend to the AGM that the No to EU shall be excluded as observer affiliates of TEAM.

Five of TEAM’s affiliates are represented in the European Parliament: The Green Party of England and Wales and the Green Party of Sweden belong to the Green Group; the UK Independence Party, The June Movement and the People´s Movement Against the EU, Denmark, belong to the EDD (Europe of Democracies and Diversities) Group.

TEAM Board

The members of the Board elected at last year´s AGM in Stockholm were Hans Lindqvist (Coordinator, Sweden), Jean-Paul Bled (Treasurer, France), Ulla Klötzer (Finland), Anthony Coughlan (Ireland), Nigel Spearing (Great Britain), Gorazd Drevensek (Slovenia) and Stian Oen (Norway). Helle Hagenau (Denmark) and Lisbeth Kirk (Denmark) were elected as observer members of the Board.

At the 2001 AGM in Stockholm Henrik Dahlsson was appointed Secretary General of TEAM. Henrik Dahlsson took up the post in Brussels on November 5, 2001, one and a half years since Helle Hagenau ended her job at the TEAM Secretariat in the European Parliament. During this time the TEAM Secretary´s work has been carried out by Helle Hagenau, Anthony Coughlan and Henrik Dahlsson, working as part-time volunteers at different periods. This inevitably reduced the effectiveness of TEAM’s work during this time and the services it could render its affiliates, which the Board very much regretted.

TEAM Board Meetings

The Board had a constitutent meeting on Sunday 24 March 2001 after the AGM and has since then had 14 meetings in all, ten of which have been phone conferences.

A face-to-face Board meeting was held in Malta in September 15-16 to support the Campaign for National Independence there. Press conferences and a public meeting were also held in Malta and the Board had its own meeting dealing with international EU-critical activity. A statement on the euro-currency was adopted and issued by the Board, together with a press statement, in Norwegian, by the Board’s Scandinavian members.

The annual meeting of the TEAM Council, required under our Constitution, was held November 10-11 in Perchtoldsdorf, Vienna. It was well-arranged by the host organisation, Aktion EU-Austritt. The meeting covered different aspects of the current development of the EU: enlargement, militarization, the plans for an EU State Constitution. About 200 Austrians came to the ‘Burg’ in Perchtoldsdorf to listen to invited speakers from Western and Central Europe, many of them well-known academics and democratic activists.

Major political events during the year

The major political events during 2001 and 2002 have been the debates on the Treaty of Nice, the EU Enlargement Process, the introduction for the euro currency, the plans for an EU State Constitution and the establishment of the EU Constitutional Convention.

The EU-critical movements across Europe have worked hard to reveal the real reasons behind the Treaty of Nice: a way to strengthen the power of the large Member States of the EU against the small countries and to move the EU away from being a group of at least legally equal States. The key political aim of Nice is to create an inner directorate of EU States under German-French hegemony that would present the rest with continual political and economic faits accomplis under the heading of “enhanced cooperation”.

The Irish No to the Treaty of Nice

The Treaty of Nice was rejected by the Irish people in a referendum in June 2001 after a successful campaign by TEAM’s Irish affiliates, The National Platform, and The Peace and Neutrality Alliance (PANA), amongst others. When the Irish said No to Nice, the Treaty should have been politically dead. But the ratification process continued in other EU-member countries as if nothing had happened. This shows the lack of respect in EU circles for the will of the people, especially those in small countries.

The Irish No to the Treaty of Nice did not stop the plans for deeper EU integration and further erosion of democracy. The Federalists have sought instead to focus on the major integrationist projects ahead, the introduction of the euro, plans for harmionising indirect taxes in the eurozone, plans for an EU State Constitution and the division of the EU into two or more tiers or classes - “the Union for the enlarged Europe and a Federation for the avant garde”, as former EU Commission President Jacques Delors has put it.

The introduction of the euro

On 1 January 2002, twelve of the 15 EU-member countries replaced their national currencies with the euro. Since the euro was launched signs of inflation has been noted in several countries in the euro-zone. Germany has problems keeping its budget deficit below the 3% figure which the Stability Pact requires, but has through political dealing avioded a warning from the Finance Ministers of the EU Member States.

However, Ireland got a warning last year when in a similar situation. This illustrates the different standards of treatment for large and small EU-Member countries. Analysts suggest that this development has undermined the legitimacy of the Stability Pact and will have significant implications for the whole EMU-project.

The EU Constitutional Convention

It was decided at the EU Summit in Laeken in December 2001 how the Convention, which will propose an EU State Constitution, will be set up. After the European Parliament and the national governments and parliaments in Member and Accession countries have nominated their representatives, it is clear that the Convention lacks both women and EU-critics.

There is also a great risk that the “Civic Forum”, which is supposed to work in parallell with the Convention, will consist only of europhiles and federalists - which would make the whole Convention an exercise in window-dressing for further integration, despite the efforts of the few democrats and EU-critics among the Convention members to champion a more democratic, people-friendly EU.

One important task for the Board and the TEAM affiliates during the coming year will be to follow the work of this Convention and show that there are movements which desire another form of cooperation in Europe than a Federal Superstate dominated by the Big EU Members.

The Board wishes to thank all organisations and people associated with TEAM for their cooperation during 2001-2002. We hope that our work will grow in effectiveness and influence during the coming year.

Henrik Dahlsson Secretary General

On behalf of the TEAM Board:

Hans Lindqvist (Sweden, Coordinator) Jean-Paul Bled (France, Treasurer) Anthony Coughlan (Ireland) Gorazd Drevensek (Slovenia) Ulla Klötzer (Finland) Stian Oen (Norway) Nigel Spearing (UK) Helle Hagenau (Norway, observer) Lisbeth Kirk (Denmark, observer)

The report was accepted by the AGM March 10, 2002.