Brits not Happy with Blair
Filed under: European Union — Michael van der Galien, Editor-in-Chief on June 24, 2007 @ 6:00 pm CEST
The EU countries agreed to a new treaty last week, one that is much like the older “constitution,” which was not accepted by the peoples of the only two countries that held a referendum about it (France and the Netherlands), though, with a few differences. Obviously, our politicians are trying to sell to us as something completely new - the Dutch people, however, think quite differently and do not believe one word of what our Prime Minister says about this subject.
Meanwhile, the Brits don’t seem to be too happy either:
A key pledge safeguarding British control over its own foreign policy that was secured by Tony Blair at the Brussels summit is not legally binding, it became clear last night.
The Opposition stepped up calls for a referendum after it emerged that a clause negotiated by Mr Blair allowing exemption from a common EU foreign policy was merely a “declaration of intent” and not an enforcable part of the treaty.
The Prime Minister’s hard-fought deal began to unravel as the Conservatives accused him of surrendering British sovereignty and boxing in his successor, Gordon Brown.
William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said Mr Blair had broken the most important of his four “red lines” - the limits of the powers he was prepared to cede to Brussels after the rejection two years ago of the EU’s planned constitution.
The blueprint for a new Reform Treaty, signed by the 27 EU member states at 5am yesterday, was hailed by Mr Blair, who leaves office on Wednesday, as a key part of his legacy.
The Dutch politicians also explain that, because they changed a comma in this treaty, there is no need for a referendum. The real reason is - of course - that if a referendum would be held, the Dutch people would most likely repeat their ‘no, thank you very much,’ from two years ago since little has changed.
Blair: “We’ve been arguing for many years about the constitutional question. This deal gives us a chance to move on. It was important to get out of this bind into which we’d got with the constitutional treaty.”
The solution: lets ram it through their throat.
This ‘treaty’ is, as the Telegraph words it, “simply a repackaged version of the rejected EU constitution.” Nothing significant has been changed, except for a comma every here and there. O, and they have decided to simply call it a “treaty” instead of a “Constitution.”
Nice try, sadly for them, Europeans are not stupid.
Now, I am personally in favor of a Constitution for the EU, but I do not favor pushing it through peoples’ throats. As far as I know, we still live in a Democracy, and the Dutch (and French) have already said ‘no’ to the Constitutional treaty of two years ago. Our Prime Minister promised that they would come up with a completely different plan altogether, ‘we’ trusted him (well, I didn’t but ok), and now broke his word.
We need a new referendum. Let the people - once again - decide what to do with this treaty.








1 Pedro Morgado
June 24, 2007 @ 11:58 pm CESTEuropean Union Leaders Reach Deal On Reform Treaty?