A must read article from The Telegraph.

Among others you’ll read:

Mr Valéry Giscard d’Estaing told the Irish Times that Ireland’s referendum rejection would not kill the Treaty, despite a legal requirement of unanimity from all the EU’s 27 member states.

“We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity, we will do nothing,” he said.

“It is impossible to function by unanimity with 27 members. This time it’s Ireland; the next time it will be somebody else.”

“Ireland is one per cent of the EU”.

Mr Giscard d’Estaing also admitted that, unlike his original Constitutional Treaty, the Lisbon EU Treaty had been carefully crafted to confuse the public.

“What was done in the [Lisbon] Treaty, and deliberately, was to mix everything up. If you look for the passages on institutions, they’re in different places, on different pages,” he said.

“Someone who wanted to understand how the thing worked could with the Constitutional Treaty, but not with this one.”

France and Germany are putting pressure on Ireland to hold a second referendum which would allow the Lisbon Treaty to come into force before European elections on June 4 2009.

Mr Giscard d’Estaing believes “there is no alternative” to a second Irish vote, a view shared by Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President.

…and there are nine million bicycles in Beijing.

While at the same time interesting news is coming from Austria:

The Austrian Socialist Party declared yesterday, that they demand a referendum on the renamed EU Constitution (Lisbon Treaty) in case there will be something changed in this Treaty! Apart from that they demand a referendum on the EU membership of Turkey.

This change is absolutely incredible and is the result of the new polls (Eurobarometer) that state that only 28% of the Austrians have a positive opinion about EU.

Now the Greens ant the ÖVP (Christian Party, in coalition with SPÖ) are really shocked and it is possible, that there will be new elections soon.

Best regards,

Gabriele Wladyka

And best of regards to you, Gabriele!