The EU is undemocratic
More on the Klaus/Referendum scandal
I posted just yesterday the video featuring Nigel Farage MEP (UKIP) attacking the scandalous behaviour of the Speaker/Chairman of the European Parliament and his boorish behaviour towards the President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus (The Czech Republic, like Germany has yet to ratify the EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty). To give you a little more background to this shocking affair, today I can point you to the full transcript of the meeting between Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, and members of the Conference of the Presidents of the European Parliament, Friday 5 December 2008, Prague Castle.
It’s available at the excellent EU Referendum blog
Further analysis is available from Dan Hannan MEP, who thought that ten years service to the European Parliament was enough to protect him from such shocking behaviour, he admits he was wrong.
As Nigel sat down, the irritating little socialist leader Martin Schulz, who recently complained that supporters of a referendum resembled Nazis, leapt to his feet. It was scandalous, he said, that the transcript had been published. Such meetings were traditionally secret. In disclosing what had been said, the Czech Republic had not behaved like a democracy.
Got that? To put into practice the EU’s much-invoked commitment to democracy is undemocratic! You see how these people think.
I hope that the British people eventually wake up and take an interest in what these monsters are up to and thinking, before next summer. There is no point at all in having a debate about this new constitution if the boors and bullies are going to ignore any shades of opinion that disagree with them. If we don’t want a European President, an EU Foreign Affairs Ambassador, an EU Foreign or Defence policy, then it should be OK to let them know. If democracy means that there will be European integration, federalism, and further regularity and harmony, even after whole nations vote against it, then they can go to hell.
Our own Parliament may as well be closed down too, as more and more sovereign powers are ceded to Brussels, or perhaps just rebranded as the EU Commissariat (UK ) Branch Office.
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The EU suffers from a huge democratic deficit. We, therefore, need to work for its democratisation. There are two main requirement for this.
(1)Our objective needs to be to establish an EU Constitution which clearly defines the powers that can be exercised through its own institutions and those that can be operated via the institutions of its Member States. This would give precision and overcome the current constitutional fudge which is called “subsidiarity”. Such a constitution would need to be put to a referendum throughout all of the Member States. To stand a chance of gaining acceptance (and on good democratic grounds) it would need to meet peoples’ needs by limiting the EU’s authority to what are seen as essentials only. Other powers would need to be returned to the Nation States. Working out the boundaries between the EU and the Nation States would require a huge political debate – but the process would itself be worthwhile and educative.
(2) The Institutions of the EU also need to be democratic. The key element in a democracy should be Parliaments. The EU Parliament itself (within the confines of the above Constitution) needs to be the EU’s major decision making body and not the Council of Ministers, nor the European Commission.
With (1) and (2)interconnected, we would then be able to establish a properly democratic and Confederal Europe (for Member States would need to retain the constitutional right to withdraw from membership). The EU Constitution should also not be fixed in ways that bind its institutions to operate under a fixed pattern of either (say) socialism or of what are termed free-market principles (which actually allow power to pass into the hands of oligarchies). The European electorate need to be free to decide which left or right-wing direction they wish to move towards (and back from) at any particular time.
Harry Barnes
December 20, 2008 at 10:04 pm