by euobserver.com

Today @ 09:24 CET

Draft conclusions for this week’s EU summit say the Lisbon treaty is to enter into force on 1 January 2010 in a deal struck by Ireland and the French EU presidency, Reuters reports, citing diplomatic sources. The phrasing will put pressure on Ireland to hold a second referendum on the text in time.

by Niall, Ireland

To understand the Machiavellian machinations behind the EU Project we must examine the psychological roots of the rapacious centralisation of power. Watching Europe’s political class squirm after Ireland’s No vote, I couldn’t help but feel that some of them know something we don’t: there is an agenda that must be met. Ireland could not be threatened into sealing the nEU Deal, yet it’s business as usual for the fanatical Eurocrats who are adamant nothing will get in their way.

It is evident, for those with eyes to see, that political discord between rival criminal cartels is purely for public consumption. Bread and circuses. Policy is not shaped by party politics. Decisions are made by a few: everyone else adjusts or starves. Weapons of financial mass destruction deployed by Central Bankers and Disaster-Capitalists, under the guise of protecting the markets and improving the efficiency of the system, vacuum the wealth of the nations – the work people produce – into ever fewer hands.

Meeting between Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, and members of the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament, Friday 5 December 2008, Prague Castle

Daniel Cohn-Bendit MEP: I brought you a flag, which - as we heard - you have everywhere here at the Prague Castle. It is the flag of the European Union, so I will place it here in front of you.

It will be a tough Presidency. The Czech Republic will have to deal with the work directive and climate package. EU climate package represents less than what our fraction would wish for. It will be necessary to hold on to the minimum of that. I am certain that the climate change represents not only a risk, but also a danger for the future development of the planet. My view is based on scientific views and majority approval of the EP and I know you disagree with me. You can believe what you want, I don’t believe, I know that global warming is a reality.

Lisbon Treaty: I don’t care about your opinions on it. I want to know what you are going to do if the Czech Chamber of Deputies and the Senate approve it. Will you respect the will of the representatives of the people? You will have to sign it….

Les eurodéputés au pays des Tchèques
LE MONDE | 05.12.08 | 14h42 • Mis à jour le 05.12.08 | 14h43

Cette semaine, les eurodéputés sont partis en goguette. Direction Prague, au pays de la future présidence de l’Union européenne. Les plus fous nourrissaient l’ultime espoir d’évangéliser les eurosceptiques Tchèques et de donner des leçons d’Europe au plus dur à cuire de tous, l’ultralibéral et souverainiste président Vaclav Klaus. Il devait recevoir les chefs de groupe parlementaire pendant une demi-heure, vendredi 5 décembre.

Jeudi soir, dans un café pragois, le Vert Dany Cohn-Bendit répète le numéro qu’il a mijoté pour le président. Dany a pris de sérieux risques : il a apporté de Bruxelles un tout petit drapeau européen qu’il s’apprête à brandir comme un fétiche et à poser sur le bureau de Vaclav Klaus. “Il est phobique. On va bien voir”, se réjouissait-il avant l’aventure.

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Following poll was reported in the Daily Star on page 8.

70% reject a second Lisbon referendum
57% would vote No in a Treaty rerun.

A new opinion poll shows that 70% of people do not want a rerun of the Lisbon Treaty. The poll also shows that if a new treaty was forced upon the electorate that it would end up being heavily defeated.

The poll was carried out by former staff members of the Catholic Hibernian magazine, who have now set up their own non-profit social affairs research organization Gael Poll.

The chief advisor to Czech President Vaclav Klaus, Ladislav Jakl, has argued Mr Klaus should lodge a fresh complaint against the Lisbon treaty at the country’s constitutional court, citing future loss of sovereignty, Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza reports. The court cleared an earlier complaint last week.

source: euobserver.com news in brief

Submission 2 to the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Ireland and the EU:

(N.B. The four numbered sections below correspond to the four issues the Committee has been asked to report on. See also the preliminary submission above.)

1. The challenges facing Ireland following the Lisbon Treaty referendum result:

By voting No to the Lisbon Treaty on 12 June 2008 the majority of Irish voters rejected the proposal that they should change the Irish Constitution to allow the abolition of the present European Union and European Community which were established by the the 1992 Treaty of Maastricht as amended, and their replacement by a legally new European Union, separate from and superior to its Member States, which would be established by the Lisbon Treaty, whose laws, acts and measures would thereafter have the force of law in the State. The Irish people thereby rejected the attempt to establish a European Union which would have the constitutional form of a supranational Federation, of which they would be made real citizens for the first time, just as the peoples of France and the Netherlands rejected a similar proposition when they voted No to the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe in 2005.

Irish referendums are a form of direct legislation by the people

READ MORE

The letter below is being sent today to all Irish Deputies and Senators in connection with the proposal to re-run the Lisbon Referendum in order to get a different result.

It is accompanied by copies of the two submissions (first below, second here)made to the Oireachtas Sub-Committee on Ireland’s Future in the EU by Anthony Coughlan on behalf of this organisation

The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre 24 Crawford Avenue Dublin 9

Tel.: 00-353-1-8305792 Web-site: nationalplatform.org

Thursday 27 November 2008

Dear Deputy/Senator,

The top officials in Foreign Affairs sold Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister Micheal Martin a pup when they persuaded them on the morning of the Lisbon referendum count last June that they should not respect the people’s democratic vote by accepting that Ireland could not ratify Lisbon because the voters had rejected it.

That would have been the end of Lisbon and opened the way to a better Treaty.

READ MORE

On behalf of the People’s Movement against the EU in Denmark, research institute Synovate made an opinion poll on EU military. 1010 statistically representative persons in Denmark were interviewed between the 15th and 25th of October.

Three questions were asked:

READ MORE

Unlike the title of the article, many decent people in Europe find this kind of search for obstacles repulsive, however:

“No legal obstacle appears to exist to having a referendum either on precisely the same issue as that dealt with on June 12th or some variation thereof,” the report into Ireland’s future within the European Union said.

whole article by Irish Times here.

Irish Times

THE REPORT of the All-Party Oireachtas Subcommittee on Ireland’s Future in the European Union is due to be published this afternoon, following its presentation to the Joint Committee on European Affairs at Leinster House in the morning.

The final report is expected to be very similar in content to the draft circulated to subcommittee members.

READ MORE

ČeskéNoviny.cz

Brno - The Czech Constitutional Court may have not examined the EU Lisbon treaty the last time now, as a group of deputies or senators and the president can still propose that the court assess other parts of the treaty, different from those it has dealt with now.

They can submit the proposal during the next phases of the process of the treaty ratification.

READ MORE

ČeskéNoviny.cz

The court said it had not examined the treaty as a whole but only dealt with its certain parts against which concrete arguments were raised.

READ MORE

On 20th of November demonstration against the passing of the Services Directive took place in front of the Norwegian Parliament. The Labour Party decided last week that they don’t want to use the right of reservation in the EEA agreement against the Services Directive. The other two government parties, the Centre Party and the Socialist Left party, voted against the passing of this directive. The Norwegian labour union (LO) demanded several guarantees from the government to support the passing of the directive, for instance that existing and future measures to prevent social dumping would be protected. The prime minister claimed this can be guaranteed, but as we all know the future content of the services directive will be decided by the ECJ.

Almost 900 Labour Party members and labour union members have signed a social democratic petition against the passing of the directive.

250 people outside the Norwegian parliament, several political parties represented, Youth against the EU hosted it. Central board member of the Norwegian Social Democrat Youth party (AUF), Stine Renate Håheim, and Boye Ullmann from one of our labour unions, made short speeches. There were other demonstrations in eight cities around Norway. We asked the government not to pass the directive after all, and a man dressed as a priest followed by a mock funeral possession buried Norwegian labour rights.

Mr. Chairman and judges of the Constitutional Court,

I am at this hearing, because the Constitutional Court asked me to present my viewpoint on the proposal made by the Senate of the Czech Republic Parliament to have the Lisbon Treaty, modifying the Treaty on the European Union and the Treaty Establishing the European Community as agreed in Lisbon on 17 December 2007, examined in order to assess, whether or not it is compatible with the Czech Republic’s Constitution.

At the beginning, I would like to emphasize that I am well aware that the arguments that are the most relevant for the decision of the Constitutional Court, are legal arguments. I will concentrate on these arguments in my speech.

READ MORE !!

ČeskéNoviny.cz

The court is to discuss whether the treaty is consistent with Czech law. The protesters included seven members of the National Party (NS) and three representatives of the grouping Law and Justice.

The court proceedings will be attended by President Vaclav Klaus (video in Czech language), a vehement opponent of the treaty. Shortly before his arrival, the police asked the protesters to leave the place, which they refused to do.

“The law forbids public assembly within the 100-metre perimeter around of the Constitutional Court,” local police chief Martin Kotlan said.

He called on the protesters to go to the farther pavement, which is not within the required distance, but the police would tolerate it. After the demonstrators refused to do so, the police separated them from the staircase leading to the court building.

The police have warned them that they were violating the law, for which they will bear responsibility.

The protesters unfolded a banner rejecting the treaty.

NS chairwoman Petra Edelmannova said the party supported Klaus in his position on the Lisbon treaty.

“It is quite a useless document. The EU needs neither the European constitution nor anything similar,” Edelmannova said.

The Czech Republic is the only EU state not to have taken an official position on the treaty so far.

The government is for its ratification, but [Klaus is against it]( Klaus trvá na tom, že Lisabonská smlouva je protiústavní).

• Klaus insists that the Lisbon Treaty is not compatible with the Czech Constitution (in Czech), Česká televize
• Decision of the Constitutional Judges on Lisbon Treaty will effect whole European politics (in Czech), Česká televize

It is quite possible that the year 2008 will be remembered in China as the year of the rat while in Europe as the year of the rat-ification. We’ve already pondered on that.

However tomorrow, November 25th, will actually be an unusual and important day for the whole REUC (renamed EU Constitution) ratification process. Namely until today not a single ratification (except in Great Britain!) has involved significantly higher level of legal scrutiny. Attempts were made in Slovenia, in Austria constitutional judges are still warming up, and last but not least the German legal school of constitutional law will surely display a precedent or two in due time.

In the last 11 months of pan-European “Lisbon Treaty ratification” media-campaign we’ve adapted to the biased reporting and it’s quite understandable that this “Constitutional Tuesday” is not yet highlighted as the day when all can change. And it can all change at the Czech Constitutional Court.

At Tuesday’s session they will also await the arrival and speech of Mr. Václav Klaus, President of Czech Republic, who stands as a firm and generally respected EU-realist with a lifelong experience of different types of political systems, last of whom is better known as the European Union.

European Referendum Campaign has prepared a brief overview in English of the questions to the Czech Constitutional Court which was asked to inspect a possible legal correspondence of the Czech Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty (…amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty establishing the European Community).

Happy days for constitutional lawyers are here. Specially if they will be asked from the side of the media to explain in depth to their readers/listeners/viewers why the Lisbon Treaty was a bridge too far in an illegitimate attempt to create another European empire in dissonance with the will of its people.

International press release
www.nejtilleu.se
2008-11-21

After a 24-hour debate the members of the Swedish Parliament said yes to the Lisbon Treaty in the late evening of 20 November. 243 members voted yes to the Treaty, 39 voted against, 13 did not vote and 54 were not present. According to the Swedish constitutional legislation a vote of 1/6 of the members present could have blocked and postponed the ratification for a year, which means at least 49 votes. Thus if the 8 social democrats (among them two former ministers Morgan Johansson and Leif Pagrotsky and a newspaper editor Bo Bernardsson) and two of the five members from the government parties had voted with the Left Party and Green Party members, the ratification would have been postponed. The only real democrat from the establishment parties in the voting was Sven Bergström from the centrist party, who voted no together with the Left and Green members.

In fact the social democrat party had the power to stop the ratification. The Fredrik Reinfeld rightwing-government were dependent of the 130 social democrats votes in the Parliament to get the ratification through. After party banning in the final vote the “opposition” social democrat sadly put down their votes or were not present.

READ MORE !!

Massiv majoritet röstade ja till Lissabonfördraget

Motståndarna gjorde ett sista försök att skjuta på beslutet och låta väljarna folkomrösta.

Men sent på torsdagskvällen sade riksdagen ja till EU:s Lissabonfördrag.

Röstsiffrorna efter maratondebatten i riksdagen blev 243 ja, 39 nej och 13 nedlagda röster. Dessutom var 54 icke närvarande.

Article in Aftonbladet.

Transport om Lissabonfördraget

Stoppa Lissabonfördraget: Riksdagen kan komma att sälja ut Sverige den 20:e November

Today (Wednesday 19th) on the eve of the vote in the Swedish Parliament on the Treaty of Lisbon the Peoples Movement – Gluaiseacht an Phobail handed in a letter of protest to the Swedish Ambassador to Ireland Mr Claes Ljungdahl, to express our opposition to the Swedish Governments decision to proceed with ratification of a treaty already democratically rejected by the Irish people.

The decision of the Swedish government to proceed ahead with ratification is clearly designed, in consort with the EU Commission, to undemocratically isolate the Irish people and to bring more pressure to bear on us to accept this treaty.

Many people both in Ireland and across Europe admired and in deed would like to emulate the Swedish social model and the system of collective bargaining which is now under attack by the very policies of the EU that the Treaty of Lisbon wishes to see knitted into the very fabric and legal structures of the EU.

To coincide with the handing in of the letter of protest member of the Peoples Movement – Gluaiseacht an Phobail also held a picket on the Embassy to protest against the continuing ratification process but also in solidarity with the millions of Swedish citizens denied the opportunity to express their democratic verdict on this treaty in a referendum.

Information
Frank Keoghan 087 230 8330
Cian Flanagan 087 750 8975

READ MORE !!

The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre
24 Crawford Avenue
Dublin 9

Tel.: 01-8305792
Web-site: www.nationalplatform.org

Monday17 November 2008

by John Anthony Coughlan

Misleading nature of the question asked in Irish Times opinion poll on Lisbon … The planned deception envisaged for a Lisbon Two referendum becomes clearer

Any Lisbon referendum re-run must be on exactly the same Lisbon Treaty as the Irish people voted No to last June.

This crucial fact is concealed or glossed over in Monday’s Irish Times poll and in Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin’s comments on it.

Not a jot or tittle - not a comma - of the text of Lisbon can be changed, for otherwise it would be legally a new Treaty which would have to go around all 27 EU States for ratification again.

The Declarations referred to in the Opinon Poll question are different from Protocols in that they are not legally part of a Treaty. Declarations are political statements made by one State or several. They are not international agreements between States which are legally binding on them(See Irish White Paper definitions below).

Protocols are legally part of a Treaty. There will be no Protocols for Ireland over Lisbon, for that would be to reopen the Lisbon Treaty and would require all 27 EU States to ratify the new Protocol, which would in effect be a new Treaty.

A Declaration or political commitment that every Member State would keep a national Commissioner under Lisbon does not require any change in the Lisbon Treaty, for the existing Lisbon text(Art.17.5 amended TEU) allows the 27 Member States to agree to such a step unanimously in 2014, if they decide at that time not to reduce the Commission by one-third, which Lisbon otherwise envisages.

Contrary to what the Irish Times poll misleadingly asked its interview sample, Lisbon does not need to be “modified” or changed in the slightest for these Declarations to be made or for a political commitment to be given that each EU State will keep one of its nationals on the EU Commission indefinitely.

READ MORE !!

Ireland not serving citizens on Lisbon, says Ganley
ANDREW WILLIS IN DUBLIN AND VALENTINA POP IN STRASBOURG
Today @ 09:24 CET
EUOBSERVER / DUBLIN / STRASBOURG

Asked why a second referendum in Ireland is required when this was not the case in France and the Netherlands after they rejected the Constitutional Treaty, Mr Leinen said: “The situation is different now than in June 2005, when there were two Nos in one week and seven more countries set to hold referendums.”

“But when all the countries say ‘Yes’, it’s legitimate to ask [the Irish] if that’s their last answer,” he argued at a press conference in Strasbourg.

“A second No would be a No, and then of course you could forget about the treaty. But a first No is volatile, let’s say, because it’s not a clear No against Europe. Here you have a diffuse coalition of Nos. We respect it, but we have to respect as well the Yes of the other member states,” Mr Leinen concluded.

We might as well add MEP Roger Helmer’s (UK) opinion from his last electronic newsletter:

Deceit and contempt: drafting the Lisbon Treaty

When our government was trying to convince us of the benefits of the Lisbon Treaty, we were told that it contained an “Early Warning Mechanism” that increased the powers of national parliaments to resist EU legislation, and that this meant devolving greater power to member-states and increasing the accountability of the EU institutions.

But now two prominent Europhile MEPs, Labour’s Richard Corbett and the Lib-Dems’ Andrew Duff, have admitted that it did no such thing. In evidence to the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, Andrew Duff told the Committee: “there is a danger that, in assessing the Treaty of Lisbon, national parliaments become obsessed by the early warning mechanism on subsidiarity. It was understood by those of us involved in its drafting and then re-drafting, that the mechanism, although a necessary addition to the system of governance of the Union, was not really intended to be used. It is, in Bagehot’s terms, more a dignified part of the European constitutional settlement than an efficient one.” Richard Corbett told the Committee: “in practice, I do not think that the ‘yellow’ and ‘orange’ card mechanisms will be extensively used.”

The deceit is breath-taking. The contempt in which they hold the voters, and their national parliaments, is astonishing. But we need to learn the lesson: everything the EU does is about transferring power from us to them, and when they pretend otherwise, they’re lying.

Tomorrow Sweden!

People’s Movement, an organisation that campaigned against the Lisbon Treaty plans to hold a vigil outside the Swedish embassy tomorrow – Wednesday - in protest against that country’s proposed parliamentary ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, despite its democratic rejection by the Irish electorate in June of this year. Representatives of People’s Movement will also hand in a letter of protest at the embassy.

Frank Keoghan, Secretary of People’s Movement said that: ‘This proposed ratification by the Swedish government is clearly designed, in consort with the EU Commission to undemocratically isolate the Irish people and to bring more pressure to bear on them to accept an unaltered Lisbon Treaty if there should be a re-run of the referendum‘.

‘The Swedish parliament should be aware’, he continued ‘that when Sweden negotiated EU membership terms in 1993 it was guaranteed that the EU accepted the Swedish model of collective bargaining and that this guarantee was a prerequisite for both Swedish membership and the acceptance of that membership by the trade unions and the electorate. Now, the ECJ has effectively annulled these provisions and yet it proceeds with the ratification process!’

‘The labour movement throughout the EU looked to Sweden for leadership in the face of this rowing back of workers rights, just as the Irish people looked to the Swedish government to support their democratic decision to reject the Lisbon Treaty. Sadly, Sweden is now standing on the brink of failure on both counts’ Keoghan concluded.

The demonstrators will carry placards in Swedish stating that ‘No means No’ and ‘Say No to the Lisbon Treaty – Respect Ireland’s No!’

The letter of protest will be handed in at: 12:50.

The vigil will commence at: 12:45 for half an hour.

Venue: Swedish Embassy, Iveagh Court, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2.

For further Information: 087-750 8975/087-230 8330

Second Lisbon Vote strategy designed to deceive voters that Ireland has obtained concessions on Treaty

People’s Movement - Gluaiseacht an Phobail
Press Statement

November 17, 2008

Patricia McKenna, Chairperson of the People’s Movement, one of the leading No groups said, “declarations on tax, abortion and neutrality are a devious ploy designed to dupe Irish voters into believing that our Government have somehow obtained concessions from other EU States on the Lisbon Treaty. But nothing could be further from the truth. Declarations, unlike Protocols are not a legal part of a Treaty and thus holding a second referendum on Lisbon will in legal terms mean voting on the exact same treaty rejected by the voters in June. The Government parties supported by the main opposition parties are displaying utter contempt for the decision of the voters. This whole approach is clearly designed to deceive enough Irish voters into believing that they will not be voting on the exact same thing a second time.”

Former Green Party MEP, went on to say “Declarations on tax, abortion and neutrality are also ignoring the main reasons people campaigned for a No vote on the Lisbon Treaty and will provide no guarantees on the key issues of our campaign including the privatisation of public services and increases in military spending which the treaty commits us to.”

In relation to today’s opinion poll McKenna said “Of course you will get people to say they will support something if their concerns are being addressed and that is why the poll results show an increase in support, but the reality of the situation is very different. Plans to hold a second referendum without any changes to the Lisbon Treaty is an affront to the democratic process.”

“The challenge for those on the No side will be to counter the false impression that modifications will have been made to the Lisbon Treaty that address voters concerns. It is patently clear that the purpose of any second referendum will be to reverse the result of the first vote without the substantive issues of concern being addressed. The most democratic course of action would be to consult all the peoples of the EU to see what kind of EU people really want but the political establishment both here and in Brussels fear the voice of their voters.” McKenna concluded.

For further Information

Patricia McKenna (Chairperson)
Frank Keoghan