Brown is preparing to break the law over Ireland’s EU vote
By their bullying treatment of Ireland, the powers that be in the European Union are openly threatening to breach the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The British government is openly threatening to breach our own European Communities Act, which would prohibit ratification of any Treaty unless it was ratified by all other member states. Gordon Brown is preparing to break British law. What does one do with a rogue regime that behaves in this fashion? Yes, you can make all kinds of arguments that the European Project has been broadly positive. It steered Eastern Europe safely into port after the fall of Communism, when there could have been a drift into soft-fascist tendencies. It has made Russia think twice about leaning on the Baltics too hard. You could credit Europe with breaking down economic barriers, although these barriers have come down all over the world, and they came down in Europe in the 19th century without need for anything like the Brussels apparatus. Even if the all the claims made on behalf of EU are true, where does one stop and say a line cannot be crossed? Reading the European press over the last couple of days has been revealing. The debate is in essence over whether or not Ireland should be a) required to vote a second time with some minor protocol attached b) be shunted aside into a second tier or c) be more or less kicked out of the Union altogether. Every one of these suggestions is either outrageous, or illegal. The German foreign minister Steinmeier said Ireland should "temporarily" withdraw from the EU integration process. If that is not an expulsion threat, I don't know what it is. Presumably Mr Steinmeier knows that Ireland is an integral part of the monetary union, so one can only conclude that he is willing to contemplate a partial disintegration of the euro. You can see very quickly that this is a dangerous game. The next time anybody tells you that Germany would never let Spain, say, be forced out of the euro because Berlin has made such a huge political investment in European unity, tell them to read Mr Steinmeier comments. They reveal no such reflex of solidarity. I am pro-German, but not this evening. The last three years have shown that the Lisbon Treaty is not necessary to carry out EU business. The machine has kept going just as before. It copes fine with 27 states. (This is of course no surprise to those of us who witnessed the original drafting of this treaty - then the Constitution - and know perfectly well that it has almost nothing to do with "streamlining" the EU institutions, let alone removing the EU from the "nooks and crannies" of national life as originally proclaimed in the Laeken Declaration. It was an attempt to lock in the structure of a European state - giving the Court of Justice vastly increased powers - before the new countries arrived from Eastern Europe, making any such gambit impossible. The Brussels integrationist knew it was their last chance. They rolled the dice and lost when the French and the Dutch said no. They rolled again with Lisbon, and lost again last week. Now they are playing seriously dirty). If the intentions were honest, the EU could simply accept the Irish verdict, recognise that this is not a useful exercise, and ditch the treaty. Almost none of the 500m million citizens would shed a tear. Life would go on. Instead, Brussels, Paris, Berlin - and London, I am ashamed to say - are pressing ahead with reckless arrogance and stupidity. The markets may not have reacted yet to Ireland's NO but the actions of the EU-elite are opening the way for a political showdown that will indeed have financial consequences. As Italy's finance minister said over the weekend, Europe risks degenerating into "fascism" in the next economic downturn. Indeed it does. Its actions over Ireland already smack of fascism. It will be resisted. The outpourings of fury in eurosceptic press/blogs in France (I have never felt so much at one with the French Socialists, or indeed the Dutch hard-Left) and in Italy (yes it exists, one Italian minister even congratulated the Irish) - not no mention Scandinavia, or the Czech Republic - lead me to suspect that the EU political class has misjudged. It has got away with Monnet sleight of hand many times before. This time it has failed to notice how the ground is sliding away beneath its feet. The French, Dutch, and Irish people have explicitly rejected this dishonest text. The British would have done so, and so would the Swedes, Danes, and Poles, if given a vote three years ago. The argument that 4m Irish should not thwart the will of 500m people would be more compelling if it were remotely true. But at least parliaments are ratifying the treaty by due constitutional process, so the legal formalities have until now been observed. But the expulsion of Ireland is not legal. Any attempt to proceed without Irish compliance is a Putsch. One cannot remain a member of a union that engages in putschs and scoffs at international treaty law, especially one that is about to create an EU supreme court (ECJ) with sweeping jurisdiction over all Union law - including justice - and that beyond appeal. We may all have to tax out consciences very soon and decide whether to resist this Putsch by all possible means. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/business/ambrosevanspritchard/june2008/irelandeuvote.htm
By their bullying treatment of Ireland, the powers that be in the European Union are openly threatening to breach the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. The British government is openly threatening to breach our own European Communities Act, which would prohibit ratification of any Treaty unless it was ratified by all other member states. Gordon Brown is preparing to break British law. What does one do with a rogue regime that behaves in this fashion? Yes, you can make all kinds of arguments that the European Project has been broadly positive. It steered Eastern Europe safely into port after the fall of Communism, when there could have been a drift into soft-fascist tendencies. It has made Russia think twice about leaning on the Baltics too hard. You could credit Europe with breaking down economic barriers, although these barriers have come down all over the world, and they came down in Europe in the 19th century without need for anything like the Brussels apparatus. Even if the all the claims made on behalf of EU are true, where does one stop and say a line cannot be crossed? Reading the European press over the last couple of days has been revealing. The debate is in essence over whether or not Ireland should be a) required to vote a second time with some minor protocol attached b) be shunted aside into a second tier or c) be more or less kicked out of the Union altogether. Every one of these suggestions is either outrageous, or illegal. The German foreign minister Steinmeier said Ireland should "temporarily" withdraw from the EU integration process. If that is not an expulsion threat, I don't know what it is. Presumably Mr Steinmeier knows that Ireland is an integral part of the monetary union, so one can only conclude that he is willing to contemplate a partial disintegration of the euro. You can see very quickly that this is a dangerous game. The next time anybody tells you that Germany would never let Spain, say, be forced out of the euro because Berlin has made such a huge political investment in European unity, tell them to read Mr Steinmeier comments. They reveal no such reflex of solidarity. I am pro-German, but not this evening. The last three years have shown that the Lisbon Treaty is not necessary to carry out EU business. The machine has kept going just as before. It copes fine with 27 states. (This is of course no surprise to those of us who witnessed the original drafting of this treaty - then the Constitution - and know perfectly well that it has almost nothing to do with "streamlining" the EU institutions, let alone removing the EU from the "nooks and crannies" of national life as originally proclaimed in the Laeken Declaration. It was an attempt to lock in the structure of a European state - giving the Court of Justice vastly increased powers - before the new countries arrived from Eastern Europe, making any such gambit impossible. The Brussels integrationist knew it was their last chance. They rolled the dice and lost when the French and the Dutch said no. They rolled again with Lisbon, and lost again last week. Now they are playing seriously dirty). If the intentions were honest, the EU could simply accept the Irish verdict, recognise that this is not a useful exercise, and ditch the treaty. Almost none of the 500m million citizens would shed a tear. Life would go on. Instead, Brussels, Paris, Berlin - and London, I am ashamed to say - are pressing ahead with reckless arrogance and stupidity. The markets may not have reacted yet to Ireland's NO but the actions of the EU-elite are opening the way for a political showdown that will indeed have financial consequences. As Italy's finance minister said over the weekend, Europe risks degenerating into "fascism" in the next economic downturn. Indeed it does. Its actions over Ireland already smack of fascism. It will be resisted. The outpourings of fury in eurosceptic press/blogs in France (I have never felt so much at one with the French Socialists, or indeed the Dutch hard-Left) and in Italy (yes it exists, one Italian minister even congratulated the Irish) - not no mention Scandinavia, or the Czech Republic - lead me to suspect that the EU political class has misjudged. It has got away with Monnet sleight of hand many times before. This time it has failed to notice how the ground is sliding away beneath its feet. The French, Dutch, and Irish people have explicitly rejected this dishonest text. The British would have done so, and so would the Swedes, Danes, and Poles, if given a vote three years ago. The argument that 4m Irish should not thwart the will of 500m people would be more compelling if it were remotely true. But at least parliaments are ratifying the treaty by due constitutional process, so the legal formalities have until now been observed. But the expulsion of Ireland is not legal. Any attempt to proceed without Irish compliance is a Putsch. One cannot remain a member of a union that engages in putschs and scoffs at international treaty law, especially one that is about to create an EU supreme court (ECJ) with sweeping jurisdiction over all Union law - including justice - and that beyond appeal. We may all have to tax out consciences very soon and decide whether to resist this Putsch by all possible means. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/business/ambrosevanspritchard/june2008/irelandeuvote.htm