11/4/09 The Times (UK)|Lisbon treaty signing leads to new dawn in Europe

[Housecarl]

Now it really starts to get "interesting"......
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Posted for fair use.....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6901961.ece

From The Times
November 4, 2009
Lisbon treaty signing leads to new dawn in Europe
David Charter, Europe Correspondent, and Philip Webster, Political Editor

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Europe’s elite celebrated the imminent arrival of its first president last night as the last lingering resistance to the Lisbon treaty fell away with the stroke of a pen in Prague.

Gordon Brown and other leaders hailed a new era of expanded powers for the European Union to act on the world stage after the Eurosceptic President of the Czech Republic signed the treaty. The relief across European capitals was palpable as the eight-year journey of an accord that gives Europe a president and a new chief of foreign affairs came to an end.

European leaders wasted no time in starting the process to choose their new president from a range of names including Tony Blair. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister of Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, began a round of telephone diplomacy to determine a shortlist of names.

Last night William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, announced the end of the long Conservative campaign for a referendum on the treaty. David Cameron will try to satisfy his Eurosceptic party today with pledges to try to repatriate powers from Brussels and stop any future treaty going through without a referendum.

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* Lisbon and After

* Cameron’s European mission impossible

* President Václav Klaus signs Lisbon treaty

There are already signs he will not be able to placate those who accuse him of reneging on a “cast iron” promise. He will argue that because the treaty is now European law there is no treaty left upon which to hold a vote.

Mr Blair’s chances took a knock at last week’s EU summit when smaller countries pleaded for a “chairman not a chief” but neither Downing Street nor his allies believe that the former Prime Minister is yet out of the race.

Mr Reinfeldt echoed the feelings of many EU leaders when he declared that the treaty process had gone on for “far too long” since grand plans for an EU constitution dating back to 2001 were scuppered by referendum defeats in France and the Netherlands. The Lisbon treaty was the brainchild of Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Angela Merkel of Germany to revive most of the contents of the constitution but in a form that required a referendum only in the Irish Republic, and even then the first vote was lost in 2008.

“After a long journey, the Treaty of Lisbon has reached the goal,” Mr Reinfeldt said last night. “All EU member states have now ratified the text. The treaty enters into force on December 1 and all the details must now be put into place . . . As soon as possible I will call for an EU summit.”

Mr Brown said that the Czech President’s decision marked “an important and historic step for all of Europe”.

[Raggedy Man]

Mr. Antichrist...paging Mr. Antichrist...

[Housecarl]

Posted for fair use.....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/com...cle6901681.ece

From The Times
November 4, 2009
Lisbon and After
The European political elite has shown its usual disdain for the popular will. But now that the Treaty of Lisbon has been ratified it is time to change the subject

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The refusal of the Government to allow the electorate a say on the Lisbon treaty has been a democratic outrage. The Government has veered unconvincingly between the argument that the Lisbon treaty does no more than rearrange the furniture and the wholly contrary claim that Britain’s vital national interest is in peril if ratification does not proceed. Yet, to suggest that, just because the words “anthem”, “flag” and “motto” have been deleted, the Lisbon treaty differs substantively from the original constitutional document is not just sophistry, it is an insult to our intelligence.

The Lisbon process has been put to the people on three occasions and on three occasions it has been rejected. The French and the Dutch declined the offer of the first constitutional treaty. The Irish declined the offer of the second, only to be told that “no” was an incorrect answer. Arrogantly certain of its own right to prevail, the political class barely seems to care what the people think of the project on which it is embarked. This has been yet another episode in the long and sorry drama in which the European political elite looks down on the people de haut en bas, to adopt the language of its dominant nation.

However, although it needs to be noted that this has been a victory for the elite over the people, that victory is now emphatic. The constitutional court in the Czech Republic has thrown the case out and President Klaus, against his better judgment, has put his seal on the deal. The Lisbon treaty will now come into effect from December 1. No matter how galling it is to accept, in politics when the facts change you have to change your strategy.

This is exactly what David Cameron has now signalled he will do. The question of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty is closed. There have been a few thunderous voices off, from the implacable wing of the Conservative Party, and no doubt there will be a few more. But, in truth, there is no great benefit, and plenty of cost, in trying to revoke ratification and Mr Cameron has carried the great majority of his party to that conclusion. At his party conference the Conservative leader chose to allow events to unfold, rather than bounce his party into a new position. This lacked political courage but showed plain political common sense. Mr Cameron does seem to have minimised the havoc that might otherwise have ensued in his party.

Related Links

* Lisbon treaty ushers in dawn of a new Europe

However, matters will not necessarily rest there, as the Conservative formula, menacing and vague at the same time, has it. Mr Cameron will now face demands, from within his party, to pledge to renegotiate some of the terms of Britain’s relationship with the European Union. Once those powers, whatever they are, have been repatriated, that should then be put to the country as a substitute for the referendum that was denied on the Lisbon treaty.

This is a trap that Mr Cameron would do well to avoid. The repatriation of powers after the fact is fraught with complexity. There are, no doubt, powers that we might gladly see returned from the European Union to these shores. There may well be opt-outs from existing clauses that would be useful to have. But a calculating politician needs to pledge only what is practicable. The sort of changes that might feasibly be delivered are unlikely to warrant a referendum.

Far better to use the prestige of the office of British prime minister to win the argument that sovereignty rests ultimately with the people. The passage of the Lisbon treaty has widened the democratic deficit of the European Union. In every gathering of the European elite it would be salutary if proceedings were disrupted by the reminder that the European Union exists to serve its people and not the other way round.

[Sugaree]

Very interesting comments from readers at the Times article- sounds like they are struggling with some "hope & change" of a different flavor. Most everyone finds the taste sour, but some wish to choke it down quickly while others want to spit it out. Bad medicine either way...

[TheSearcher]

I'm reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich at the moment, and while the specifics of the machinations going on right now are different, I am beginning to see how these things happen.

Dear God, help us.

[ingodsgarden]

The real beginning of the end (times).

[Spoze]

Now the stinky back-room politics start. You think the most qualified person is ever going to be nominated? ha The difference is the politics won't be limited to a single country, but will affect the whole continent. The Euros just kissed whatever autonomy they might have had goodbye, and another world government domino falls into place.