| Topic: | For Guy: "It is perfectly obvious from the BBC link..." | |
| Posted by: | Fraser Pearce | |
| Date/Time: | 13/03/08 20:09:00 |
| Guy wrote: "It is perfectly obvious from the BBC link provided above that there is nothing very revolutionary about this treaty: it seems to be aimed partly at just making an alliance of 27 states function slightly less clunkily..." - True (to an extent). Lisbon is evolutionary, not revolutionary. It's the EU agenda "moving forward" here - again to the detriment of national parliaments. That may or may not be a good thing but at least it ought to be recognised for what it is (it isn't). The BBC link ain't exactly the most rigorous analysis though, is it? No mention of specific treaty clauses, no mention of which text is exactly the same as the original Constitution, nearly the same and which is new. It's on dodgy ground to judge a primary source by a flakey secondary one. [Although it's probably not relevant to Will's BBC article, the Beeb has benefited from a £141 million loan facility from the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB is the EU's financing institution, bigger than the World Bank and IMF and is committed ” to contribute towards the integration, balanced development and economic and social cohesion of the Member Countries.”] As for 27 states functioning "slightly less clunkily", that again may or may not be a good thing. The point is though that this 'streamlining' is to the detriment of individual nation states and national parliaments. Article 33, for example, allows Lisbon to be self amending without the need for Intergovernmental Conferences - thus limiting the scrutiny of future changes. The removal of nine Commissioners means countries without a Commisioner are likely to have less influence at the top table. Article 2's 'division of competencies' shifts more power away from national legislators. The biggie though is the change in the EU voting system. Pre-Lisbon, EU law had to jump three hurdles: 74% of the Council's weighted votes, 62% of the population and a majority of the 27 member states. Post-Lisbon, EU law will only face two hurdles: 65% of the population and 55% of member states. This means Lisbon removes the biggest check and balance, with all individual Member States apart from Germany likely to find it more difficult to block legislation (France and the UK, for example, lose a shade under 30% of their power to block legislation in the Council). |