Why Wont They Listen

Those who think that allowing the Eurocrats to run the EU would be a good thing should listen to French President Sarkozy who, on assuming the EU 'presidency' on Tuesday said, "The goals of the French presidency are to solve the institutional crisis, to find a solution despite the deadlock that we are currently facing.

"We are also trying to find practical solutions on issues such as immigration and environment. But, believe you me, simply negotiating energy and climate change in the European Commission is not easy."

This is one of the reasons that the Eurocrats want to get rid of each nation's veto and replace it with a system called 'Qualified Majority Voting' (QMV).

This is also one of the reasons that the Irish people voted 'NO,' since QMV would force European nations to adopt EU laws even if the government and people objected to them, so long as a majority either supported the new laws or could be coerced or bribed in some way - not an unlikely possibility given Europe's record when it comes to democratic governance.

Fortunately, the Irish did much to derail this effort, though there's no 'chicken-counting' going on in this neighborhood yet, given Europe's history on referendum's that end in a 'NO' vote.

Others in Europe seem to be showing some sense in recent days - though not Gordon Brown's government in Britain, which, after bottling an General Election a year ago, has done the same on this issue, ignoring the will of the people who were promised a referendum themselves.

Now the plucky Poles, following the lead of the Czechs, (now these are two peoples who have had first-hand experience of Grand European projects,) have decided to call a halt to the ratification process, Polish President Lech Kaczynski saying that it would be "pointless" to continue ratification until the final outcome of the process in Ireland was completed (though quite how much more complete a 'NO' could be is tough for us to see). The Czechs, for their part, as we reported last week, have put the process on hold too, President Vaclav Klaus" declaring the Treaty "dead".

Perhaps as a sign of things to come, and an example of how business is done in Europe, the Czech decision was followed by a comment by an senior French source that, "If they dig their heels in over ratifying the treaty, they are going to start their presidency [in six months time] in a state of great isolation."

So that's the modern Europe: veiled threats and the erosion of democracy... It seems like we were here just 70 years ago.