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

[Reinier Bakels]

> One of the major reasons the constitutions have actually gone down in
> France, Netherlands and Ireland is because skilled lawyers have sat
> down and volunteer worked to find out what the costitution does and
> reached the conclusion they're pretty crappy. All three elections were
> marked by massive pan-European campaigns aimed directly at voters by
> social movements, unions, human rights organisations, etc. Read about
> the Attac campaign in France 2003, f'rinstance.

I wish it were true. In my observation, the debate in The Netherlands was 
*not* about the actual substance, it was just very confused. The actual 
contents hardly played a role. People were upset about giving more power to 
"Brussels", about an emerging European "super state", about the loss of 
national identity, about the poor government campaign, and about the 
government in general (= local politics).

I agree with people who noted that the very idea of a referendum bypasses 
the parliament. However cynical one can be about politics, parliament 
debates still serve a purpose. A debate in parliament woud have allowed an 
articulation of arguments, and *concrete* proposals for improvement.

As there were no concrete proposals for improvement(*), the only thing that 
happened was that the "Constitution" was renamed to a "Treaty", together 
with several other *cosmetic* changes.

(*) Perhaps I am not aware of them. I believe the debate should concentrate 
on concrete proposals for improvement, rather than dwelling endlessly about 
the formalities of the adoption of the treaty.

And - as I have writte in my previous mail - the focus on *rules* is perhaps 
bound to be unproductive anyway as long as the *mentality* does not change. 
The Council of Ministers should be held responsible by national parliaments 
for their decisions in Brussels. This rule does exist today, on paper. It 
only does not happen. Why? Because the electorate is not interested? Our 
Minister of Justice was not fired after he ignored a parliament resolution 
NOT to vote in favour of the Data Retention Directive!! And so on.

reinier