This is the 4th Video Journal in the ERC2 production and it entails interviews with some of the most exposed personalities in the referendum campaign.

Yesterday the Irish business people (IBEC) have developed brand new argument for voting YES on the dubious treaty. In their Press Centre you can read following:

Recent news from Poland and Ireland suggest that instead on focusing primarily on basic question of a loss of member state’s sovereignty as such public debate tends to bend towards rather unexpected issues such as abortion in Ireland or “gay-marriages” in Poland.

After watching following video you might be left speechless as well:

Please forward this link to your friends and relatives!

Help them understand the direction in which the European Parliament and the EU in general are heading.

From the French initiative www.29mai.eu we have received following appeal:

Dear Sirs,

*the new Treaty, identical to the treaty it replaces to establish an European Constitution, was adopted in December at the summit in Lisbon. The French President announced that he would not give the French another Referendum.

EUobserver, 28th Nov 2007: “Ireland is to be the only country that has a referendum on document, which has to be approved by all member states before it can go into force.”

From the article: Unclear EU treaty provisions causing ‘nervousness’

We ask TEAM friends and members to send your comments and replies which will be published to this address.

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Tue, 2007-11-27 15:48

Not a Comma Has Changed!

A quote from former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing at his blog, 23rd November 2007

I have taken on the work of comparing the draft of the new Treaty of Lisbon with the Constitution on the ‘nine essential points’ published on this blog.
To my surprise, and, to tell the truth, to my great satisfaction, these nine points reappear word for word in the new project. Not a comma has changed! The only thing is that you have to really look for them because they are dispersed in the texts the new Treaty refers to, namely the Treaties of Rome and Maastricht.
The only difference is that the qualified majority voting is put off until 1 November 2014, while with the Constitution, it would have come into force straight after ratification. I do not see the interest of this delay and I think we could have done without it.

A Conference on the ‘Future of Europe’ is being held in Berlin on 23 - 25 March, 2007, coinciding with the Berlin Declaration on the 50th Annivarsary of the Treaty of Rome. The conference is organised through the cooperation of the European Party, the EUDemocrats, the pro-democracy organisation Mehr Demokratie and the social initiative group Social Impulses.

An overwhelming majority of citizens in the big eurozone countries believe that the euro has damaged their national economies. More than two-thirds of the French, Italians and Spanish - and more than half of Germans - believe the single currency has had a “negative impact”, according to an FT-Harris poll. In France, only 5 per cent said the euro has had a positive effect on the French economy.

Read the full article by Ralph Atkins, Financial Times correspondent in Frankfurt.

“Jean-Claude Juncker, the acting president of the Council, has proposed a re-run of all referendums on the constitution resulting in a no. But why shouldn’t Spain re-run its referendum?” writes Jens-Peter Bonde MEP, co-presdient of the Independence/Democracy Group in the European Parliament.

Read more on EUobserver.com

The European No Campaign is organising a conference in Amsterdam on Saturday, 21 May 2005. Dutch and international speakers will address the conference.

Everyone is invited to join at “Felix Meritis” - Keizerskracht 324, from 11.00 to 18.00.

You can find more information here.

If you intend to attend, please use the online registration form. You can contact Thomas Rupp, the Coordinator of the European No Campaign, on e-mail thomas@europeannocampaign.com, tel +44 207 197 2333 or fax +44 207 197 2307.

• Here you can find a collection of quotes about the EU, the euro and Europe.

“Old ideas from an old man about an old vision of Europe.”

Denis McShane, UK Minister for Europe, on Giscard’s proposal for an EU President, BBC Online, 15-03-2004

“We must go back to teach Europeans to love Europe.”

Jean Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, El Pais, 6-2-2004

Ola Larsmo, a Swedish author and critic, argues in this analysis against the view that Sweden rejected the euro in the recent referendum out of sense of isolationism and a perceived superiority towards its European neighbours. Far from it. What was at stake for the euro no-voters was not Europe itself but a certain concept of modernity and progress, argues Larsmo.

Read more in the netmagazine Eurozine.com

This book, “The Great Deception - the secret history of the European Union” by Christopher Booker and Richard North, tells for the first time the inside story of the most audacious political project of modern times: the plan to unite Europe under a single “supranational” government. From the 1920s when the European Union was first conceived by a British civil servant, this meticulously documented account takes the story right up to current moves to give Europe a political constitution, already planned 60 years ago to be the “crowning dream” of the whole project.

Read more and order the book at WHSmith

“According to a popular perception in Brussels the Union develops from crisis to crisis. If this is true we might be witnessing a huge upswing in the near future. Unfortunately, in the time being, we have to face the crises”, writes Karoly Lorant from Hungary.

Maltese fisheries and European Union Membership

This is an analysis of the consequences of the agreement reached between Malta and the EU in the fisheries sector, and of the effects of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The analysis is based on the Information Note, “Outcome of negotiations in the area of fishing”, from the Malta Information Centre (MIC), statements by the Hon. Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Ninu Zammit, and on discussions with Hon. Noel Farrugia, Opposition Spokesman on the same sector.