EU Grondwet gaat door je strot!

1. Hub, Hub, je moet nog geen schrik hebben.

   Bij mijn voorbereiding gisteren vond ik deze reactie van de Poolse eerste minister stellende dat we nu (d.i. sinds de treinbommen in Madrid) gemeenschappelijke idealen hebben in Financial Times:
   
   Leszek Miller, Poland’s prime minister, said the Madrid attacks had galvanised the EU. "The participants have realised how common the threats are and how common our ideals are." http://news.ft.com/servlet/… wat natuurlijk niet al te bevredigend is.

   Beter was de BBC die stelde dat
   
   The Conservatives want voters to use elections in June to air their views on the proposed European constitution. They say a referendum is needed before Britain signed up to "this dangerous document", claiming the constitution would create an EU "super state". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/…

   Vanmorgen had ik de goede reflex om The Economist te openen. Niettegenstaande Miller’s zojuist geciteerde commentaar zal Polen er, samen met Groot- Britannie, in slagen om de grondwet te dwarsbomen. Indien niet alle 25 lidstaten de grondwet goedkeuren komt er geen grondwet.

   REVIVED TO DIE ANOTHER DAY?
   
   UITREKSELS
   
   European Union leaders have relaunched their plan to give the EU a written constitution, which had looked doomed after the collapse of talks last December. The leaders now seem ready to compromise but what about their voters and parliaments?
   
   “TWELVE weeks to stop Euro superstate”, screamed Britain’s Europhobic tabloid Sun this week, reporting that European Union leaders—led by the nefarious, cheese-eating President Jacques Chirac of France—had revived their proposals for a written EU constitution and were aiming to get it agreed by June. To the horror of those opposed to “Ever closer union”, the constitution would among other things extend the Union’s powers and remove national governments’ vetoes in many areas. It would also give the EU a full-time president and foreign minister and introduce a charter of fundamental rights.
   
   +
   
   Faced with being the only one still resisting an agreement, Poland’s prime minister, Leszek Miller, had begun in recent days to signal his readiness to compromise. But while Mr Miller sat at the summit table on Thursday night, a group of parliamentarians from his Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) met in Warsaw and agreed to break away and form a new party. On returning home, Mr Miller, who has become deeply unpopular as a result of corruption scandals, bungled health reforms and Poland’s 20% unemployment rate, announced his resignation (see article). Even if his replacement is equally willing to compromise over the EU’s voting arrangements, the Polish parliament and people may not be. The parliament has already passed a motion rejecting anything other than the Nice voting rules. If Poland holds a referendum on the EU constitution, as Mr Miller has suggested it might, the answer might well be Nie.
   
   +
   
   Since the constitution only takes effect if it is ratified by all 25 countries, there is a strong chance that, despite the EU leaders’ willingness to compromise, it will fail to get through. In one respect, this would be a shame: the new voting arrangements make sense, as does the idea of giving the Union a fundamental charter outlining its powers, in place of the current hotch-potch of treaties. However, the draft constitution that EU leaders have been discussing, drawn up by a 105-member European Convention, is a terrible mess. It is so hard to understand that even the convention’s members struggle to explain it. Whereas it ought to have strengthened the principle of “subsidiarity” (devolving decision-making so it is as close to the people as possible), it does the opposite—making everything subordinate to the Union’s objectives, which include various types of “cohesion” (read: Brussels-led harmonisation).
   
   http://www.economist.com/ag…

   De kogel is nog lang niet door de kerk, laat staan door je strot.

2. test

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