Lisbon Treaty Replay
January 15, 2009 by Ken
Filed under The Constitution of the EU
Lord Malloch-Brown: My Lords, 24 of 27 countries have ratified and are now ready. Ireland sought and has received guarantees, but the treaty has not been reopened. In that regard, it is a referendum on the same treaty as before. Hansard
The Irish government is going to ask its citizens to vote on exactly the same treaty they have already rejected. They are going to use any method they can to force a yes vote this time, the main attack will come in the form of the guarantees they have negotiated, but those guarantees do not change one comma in the Lisbon Treaty. No matter what they say, it is legally impossible for changes to be made in any way to the treaty, quite simply because if there were any changes that would void the treaty and create a totally new one which of course would have to be ratified in all member states. What the guarantees amount to is a promise by all member states that once the treaty has been ratified they will use the self amending, clause in the treaty to immediately change the treaty without the possibility of those changes being debated in member states parliaments. Something we were told would not happen.
For us in Britain this gives a lie to Gordon Brown`s claim that there will be no further institutional change “for many years”, because there will be institutional changes immediately.
But more importantly do we have any assurance that those changes will only be relevant to the Irish guarantees and will not carry wider influences. I do not believe we have any such assurances and if the past thirty odd years have taught us anything they should have taught us not to believe a word we are told by those who are quite willing to sign away our independence they should have taught us that no matter what our politicians in Westminster say we are on a one way trip towards a fully federal United States of Europe, and the self amending clause will be the major tool in the federalists armoury.
I have started a Facebook Group here in Ireland:
NO TO LISBON MEANS NO TO LISBON!
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38059363467
You may consider joining. It is open to all.
JD.