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

[Amelia Andersdotter]

2008/6/14 David Golden <david at oldr.net>:
> Arend Lammertink wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I have been looking into the so-called Lisbon treaty, which basically
>> pushes trough what the Dutch and French rejected.
>
> So... anyway... the Irish vote was against it by a modest majority.
> IMO, the pro-treaty folk did quite a bit to help the anti-treaty cause, heh.
>
> I don't think the "Intellectual property shall be protected" business
> was at the forefront of many voter's concerns, but /are/ there
> implications of the vote for european pirates?

If anyone is interested in the implications for Pirate Issues by this
vote, please read this letter from Christian Engström to the
population of Ireland which was a part of the campaign against the
treaty:

<http://www.irish-friends-vote-no-for-me.org/upload/files/Briefe/Christian_Engstroem.pdf>

Engström has written a lot on the topic of democracy in the European
Union. It's of interest to anyone who is at all concerned about
democracy, but he also brings up what I thought was a particularly
valid point for us (PPI):

-- the making of the EU into "more democratic" by the Lisbon treaty,
would not in fact change any of the decision making processes that
affect immaterial rights issues. The co-decision procedure is already
applied in all IPR issues, and the Commission and Council has been
able to pull through with (partially) IPRED1 and IPRED2, as well as
several other detrimental proposals for directives, anyway.

It's more, and better, elaborated in this Swedish blog-post:
<http://christianengstrom.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/felet-med-eu-ur-piratperspektiv/>

/amelia

Of course, for those
> concerned about democracy or lack thereof in the EU, the irish vote is
> quite interesting.   However, despite media sensationalism, it certainly
> doesn't somehow spell the end of the EU, and I suspect right now it
> doesn't even spell the end for the treaty - see e.g. Barroso's and
> Sarkozy's immediate post-Irish-vote comments.  And of course there's the
> treaty of Nice history - "Hey, that last referendum gave the 'wrong'
> result, have another."
>
>
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