[pp.int.general] Lissabon Treaty: very bad news

Tue Apr 22 23:36:07 CEST 2008

Hi all,

I have been looking into the so-called Lisbon treaty, which basically 
pushes trough what the Dutch and French rejected. This treaty is 
far-reaching because it basically makes the EU a federal state. It 
really is a constitution overriding national constitutions, which means 
the end of national sovereignty.

This is very, very serious IMHO.

Please take a look at the following video:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4291770489472554607

And these news items:

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http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2773

"These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You

An analysis by Prof. Anthony Coughlan

Today the European Union leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty. This treaty
gives the EU the constitutional form of a state. These are the ten most
important things the Lisbon Treaty does:

1. It establishes a legally new European Union in the constitutional
form of a supranational European State.
2. It empowers this new European Union to act as a State vis-a-vis other
States and its own citizens.
3. It makes us all citizens of this new European Union.
4. To hide the enormity of the change, the same name – European Union –
will be kept while the Lisbon Treaty changes fundamentally the legal and
constitutional nature of the Union.
5. It creates a Union Parliament for the Union's new citizens.
6. It creates a Cabinet Government of the new Union.
7. It creates a new Union political President.
8. It creates a civil rights code for the new Union's citizens.
9. It makes national Parliaments subordinate to the new Union.
10. It gives the new Union self-empowerment powers."

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http://www.vrijspreker.nl/vs/item/2008/04/constitutional-implications-of-the-treaty-of-lisbon

"The Treaty of Lisbon is an attempt to construct a highly centralised
European Federation artificially, from the top down, out of Europe's
many nations, peoples and States, without their free consent and knowledge.

[...]

It is hard to think of any major function of a sovereign State which the
new European Union would not have if the Lisbon Treaty were to be
ratified. The main one would seem to be the power to make its Member
States go to war against their will. The Treaty does however provide
that the EU may go to war while individual Member States may
"constructively abstain"(Arts.42-46, amended TEU)."

--::--

http://ironiestoo.blogspot.com/2008/01/parliamentary-supremacy.html

"The federalists' objective is to induce the national legislature in
each member state to endorse Declaration 17, perhaps unwittingly, in the
expectation that the judges within that state would subsequently
conclude that the legislature had resigned its legislative supremacy,
effectively transferring its sovereignty to the ECJ as the final arbiter
of the EU treaties and EU laws.

If that ploy was successful, in our case the consequence would be that
British judges would no longer accept the doctrine of the legislative
supremacy of the British Parliament, but would instead accept the
doctrine of the primacy of EU treaties and laws, as warned by Martin
Howe QC in his 2003 booklet "A Constitution For Europe: A Legal
Assessment of the Draft Treaty". "

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http://www.wiseupjournal.com/?p=146

WHAT THE EU TREATY OF LISBON DOES

"1. Lisbon makes the EU Constitution superior to the Irish Constitution
in all areas of EU law

2. Lisbon gives the EU the constitutional form of a supranational
European Federal State and turns Ireland and the other Member States
into regions or provinces of this Federation"

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http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86544

"The Lisbon Treaty is a constitution; it is the same as the text of the
rejected EU Constitution after omitting the state symbols of the new
federal state. The Lisbon Treaty is a federal constitution granting
essential powers to the federal EU-state (superstate) over the EU-member
states."

--::--

http://forums.ec.europa.eu/debateeurope/viewtopic.php?t=1197

"The Lisbon Treaty makes the EU a federal state
Because it is a constitution

The Lisbon Treaty is a constitution laying down the foundations of a new
political state under the name of “European Union”. This new political
state founded by the Lisbon Treaty is a federal union, in which the
member states would become non-sovereign political units. A nation’s
constitution stipulates the rights and obligations pertaining to the
status of being a citizen of the respective nation. When national
sovereignty is surrendered to a higher authority than the one
representing the nation, this implies the direct and indirect loss of
rights and privileges attached to a particular citizenship of a formerly
sovereign state. Therefore, in order to meet the minimal requirement of
a lawful and democratic process of the establishment of a new federal
union, i.e. in order to respect the rights of the citizens as per the
current social contracts (national constitutions) between them and their
nation, and whose voting rights and other citizen rights would be
attached to and enforced by the new Union under the Lisbon Treaty,
should be asked by a referendum on their approval of giving up their
nation’s sovereignty."

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http://www.j.dk/exp/images/bondes/BOOK_New_name_-_same_content_EN.pdf

"Constitution without democracy

A constitution usually protects citizens from politicians. It sets
limits to what the elected may decide
on between elections. The EU Constitution and the Lisbon treaty is
different. It protects politicians
from the influence of voters.
The EU Constitution contains everything a state needs in its paragraphs,
and not much
else. But the most fundamental thing in any democratic constitution is
missing: the voters,
democracy."

--::--

http://www.brugesgroup.com/mediacentre/comment.live?article=4014

"An EU state constitution that is superior to national constitutions

The Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe, to call it by its
proper official name, is not just another EU treaty. This Treaty
(Art.IV-437) repeals all the existing EC/EU treaties from the Treaty of
Rome to the Treaty of Nice and then founds or establishes quite a new
EU, based on its own Constitution. Legally, constitutionally and
politically this new European Union would be quite different from the
existing EU.

The new EU, founded on its own State Constitution, in fact becomes a new
European State in the world community of States. A young State and a new
one, a weak State perhaps, but a State nonetheless, with virtually all
the essential features of a State, in which the existing Member States
are reduced to the constitutional status of regions or provinces.
Simultaneously the EU Constitution becomes the fundamental source of
legal authority within Europe, supplanting the Constitutions of the
Member States as the ultimate source of legal power.

The EU Constitution becomes part of our Constitution and will not be
amendable except with the consent of other countries. This is therefore
the most decisive step ever in the near-60-year-old project of European
integration, aimed at turning the EEC/EC/EU into a fully-fledged State,
a superpower in the world.

To call it a "constitutional treaty" is to downplay its significance.
"Constitutional treaty" implies that this is comparable to previous EU
treaties like Nice, Amsterdam, Maastricht, and the Single European Act,
whereas the most important thing about it is that it is a Constitution
as well as a treaty. In international law a Treaty is a contract or
agreement between independent States, the High Contracting Parties, as
equal sovereign partners.

A Constitution is the fundamental law of a State, setting out its
institutions of government, how it makes its laws, determines its
policies and actions and relates to other States. This treaty will only
be a treaty until the Constitution comes into effect. From then on it is
the Constitution we will be bound by and will have to obey."

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/20/wirish120.xml

"Two leaked memos suggest that the Irish government and Brussels are
going to great lengths to suppress bad news that might encourage a No
vote - a result that would delight Eurosceptics everywhere, since if
Ireland does not ratify the treaty it cannot come into force anywhere in
Europe."

--::--

http://www.wiseupjournal.com/?p=262

With jpg's of "Irish Daily Mail (Front page headline on printed newspaper)"

"The Government has hatched an elaborate plan to deceive voters over the
forthcoming EU treaty referendum, the Irish Daily Mail can today reveal.
A leaked email shows that ministers are planning a deliberate campaign
of misinformation to ensure that the Lisbon Treaty vote is passed when
it is put to the public as required by the Constitution."

--::--

http://endtimesworldnews.punt.nl/?id=460928&r=1&tbl_archief=&

"Irish government embarrassed by leaked EU treaty email

German chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Irish voters to back the
EU treaty on the same day that the Irish government was embarrassed by a
leaked email outlining what a UK diplomat says is Dublin's strategy for
holding and winning a referendum"

--::--

http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article16862

"EU treaty : Leaked email reveals government plans to hoodwink (irish)
voters

The Treaty Con

The Government has hatched an elaborate plan to deceive voters over the
forthcoming EU treaty referendum, the Irish Daily Mail can today reveal.

A leaked email shows that ministers are planning a deliberate campaign
of misinformation to ensure the treaty vote is passed when it is put to
the public as required by the Constitution. The document also shows that
the Government is considering a last-minute change in the date of the
referendum - slated for June 12 - to catch out ’No’ campaigners."

--::--

http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/?c=IRELAND&jp=mhojidkfausn&d=2008-04-17

"A letter instructing EU staff to postpone "politically sensitive
discussion" on the Lisbon Treaty until after the Irish referendum has
been leaked to No campaigners, according to the editors of VoteNo.ie.

A copy of a letter sent by Jo Leiman MEP and chair of committee on
Constitutional Affairs outlines instructions to hold discussions on
potentially controversial implementation plans in secret, or to halt
them altogether, until after Irish voters have gone to the polls.

A statement from the editors of the VoteNo.ie website read: "There were
already rumours that a silent agreement to do this was in place, but
this letter is clear evidence of that fact."

The letter concludes: "It would therefore appear highly advisable that
any document concerning the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon which
addresses politically sensitive matters be examined only when it becomes
sufficiently clear that the Treaty will enter into force." "

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http://www.libertas.org/content/view/261/1/

"Libertas is demanding an immediate statement from the Government
clarifying the contents of a leaked department of foreign affairs email,
the contents of which are detailed in a morning newspaper today.

According to a detailed report in the Irish Daily Mail (scan available
here), an email from a very senior Irish official to his British
counterpart reveals that the Government is systematically hiding key
information about the Lisbon Treaty from voters."

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Regards,

-- Arend Lammertink --