Here we go again…
Thu, Sep 24, 2009 posted by maskonur
According to the BBC website a group of Czech parliamentarians, with a clear blessing from the President Klaus, is cooking a petition to the Constitutional Court. I am afraid this is not an internal domestic issue but a major setback to the European project. The applicants are expressing a desire of asking the Court to adjudicate for the second time (sic!) on the conformity of the Treaty of Lisbon with the Czech Constitution. The timing is not accidental by any stretch of imagination. Just as the Irish are going to vote again next week, the Czech petitioners are clearly willing to derail the Treaty. God knows what the Polish President will do. We may not love the Treaty of Lisbon so much, however it provides some badly needed reforms (third pillar and external policy for the sake of argument) and we simply have to finish this political gamble of reforming the EU. Now, the trouble is that UK Conservatives want to have a go with Lisbon when they (most likely) take over the driving seat in mid next year. Imagine the results of a referendum in the UK….For now, poor Swedish Presidency! Stockholm, together with other capitals, may have to find a way how to appoint the new European Commission and to reduce its size.
What are the options when it comes to Lisbon? The application of the Treaty on provisional basis? The application of the Treaty by the Member States which have already ratified it (great majority)? To play the devil’s advocate, one could consider a jump over the fence to the European Economic Area as an alternative for the countries which have not yet ratified the Lisbon Treaty. After all, if Iceland joins the EU soon there will be a vacancy on the EEA side…..and with all opt-outs provided for the UK under the Lisbon Treaty it will become half of a Member State anyway.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Insidious, is the word I chose to use to describe the antics of Vaclav Klaus, David Cameron and William Hague, acting against the will of 27 governments and 26 national parliaments.
As I understand it, they want to undermine the Yes campaign i Ireland to wreck the Lisbon Treaty, or prevent it from entering into force, even if the Irish citizens approve it.
If the mediocre Lisbon Treaty is delayed or dumped, the only real solution is a more ambitious and restricted union.
September 24th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Just to complete the information: the group of senators has been waiting with its petition to the Constitutional Court since May 2009 (when the Lisbon Treaty got the Parliament’s approval) and President Klaus has been patiently awaiting the submission (it should be finally submitted on 29 September). Unfortunately, there is no time limitation in the Act on the Constitutional Court, which would prescribe some clear time limit on such petitions.
However, in addition to this petition, a group of senators attacked amendments to the Acts on the rules of procedure of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, which were intended to lay down rules on how passerelles would be approved by the Parliament (the petition is here - in Czech, but Google Translator might help you to get an idea, especially as the petition quotes extensively from the German FCC’s decision on the Lisbon Treaty). Petr Briza (who also published a case comment on the Czech CC decision concerning the Lisbon Treaty in ECLR) wrote a nice post on our blog Jiné právo (I am afraid only in Czech too)and some experts on constitutional law participated in the debate on it.
September 25th, 2009 at 2:11 am
I understand your frustration to some extent. But if you think it’s okay for Barroso, Cowen etc. to insist on the Irish voting again, rather than respecting the original vote; if it’s okay for Sarkozy and Balkenende to ratify without even having the respect to ask their people again after they said No the first time; and if it’s okay for Brown to refuse the British a referendum after he was elected on the promised of one (a really shameful piece of political dishonesty), then I find it difficult to see how you can criticise the tactics of Klaus and Cameron.
I am a supporter of Brown, not Cameron; I’m strongly in favour of British membership of the EU; and I don’t have strong feelings against Lisbon in itself. But I also have very strong feelings indeed about democracy, and because this treaty is being rammed through regardless of the views of EU citizens, I now do find myself increasingly against it. This is a masterclass, from Europe’s leaders, in how to build up resentment against the EU across Europe - not only in countries like Britain, but in other countries where people would like to have had their say on this, but have been denied it.
I fear a real crisis ahead for the EU - and if it comes, the pro-Lisbon camp, with its determination to get this treaty at all costs, will bear a lot of responsibility for it.
Ralf’s already familiar with my views on this. But Ralf, I don’t see how you can complain about David Cameron wanting to stop Lisbon “even if Irish citizens approve it”. You want Lisbon to go through even though Irish citizens have *already* rejected it! French and Dutch citizens too, in truth, and British citizens would also reject it if they could, as the original poster admits.
By the way, if, like me, you don’t want David Cameron in power, then you need to realise that the second Irish referendum is a gift to him politically. The fact that Lisbon is still alive and that he leads the only party opposed to it is one of the reasons he looks likely to win. I honestly think the EU could regain popularity in the UK if pro-Europeans began to think seriously about why it’s become so disliked. Bullying the Irish into a second vote certainly isn’t the way.