November 30, 2009

LISBON TREATY COMES INTO FORCE ON TUESDAY

 

 

The European Union Act 2009 was published at the end of October. This Act implements the second Lisbon Treaty referendum result by amending the European Communities Act 1972 which has made European law applicable in the State up to now. The new Act makes the laws, acts and measures of the European Union "established by virtue of the Lisbon Treaty" part of the domestic law of the State.

 This is a constitutionally different European Union from what we call the European Union at present, which was established by the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, although its name is the same. This post-Lisbon EU replaces the European Community which Ireland joined in 1973 and which made supranational European laws up to now, and takes over all its powers and institutions. From Tuesday therefore we will all be endowed with an additional citizenship to our Irish citizenship - a real EU citizenship with associated rights and duties, something quite different in its implications to the purely notional or symbolical EU citizenship that we are assumed to have possessed up to now.  

 The article below explains the constitutional revolution in the EU and its Member States which has been brought about by the Lisbon Treaty and which will formally culminate on Tuesday.  This is something that scarcely figured in what passed for "debate" on the Lisbon Treaty in our Lisbon Two referendum. The statutory Referendum Commission completely failed to explain the constitutional significance of Lisbon to Irish citizen-voters, even though that was its prime duty under the Referendum Act establishing it - something the Government and Yes-side interests must be very grateful for.

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PEOPLE´S MOVEMENT PICKET ON DAIL ... TUESDAY 1-1.30 P.M.

The People´s Movement, whose chairman is former MEP Patricia McKenna, will protest against the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty and the undemocratic manner in which it was pushed through, in Ireland and across the EU, for half an hour outside Dail Eireann in Kildare Street from 1 to 1.30 p.m. on  tomorrow, Tuesday. Interested people are invited to come along with appropriate posters, slogans etc. 

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 LADY CATHERINE ASHTON, BARONESS ASHTON OF UPHOLLAND

 Baroness Catherine Ashton is the new EU "Foreign Minister" under the Lisbon Treaty - properly titled "The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy".  The Irish media have so far been remarkably reluctant to give this lady her proper title. The Irish Times refers to her as "Ms Ashton".  Is it not curious, this reluctance to give a member of the House of Lords, which the Baroness remains, her proper designation?

 Baroness Ashton will receive an annual salary of ¤350,000 and have a chauffeured car, a housing allowance and a staff of 20. She will have control of the new EU External Action Service, starting with 5000 staff already engaged  on "external relations", based on EU delegations in 130 countries - and the service is expected to grow rapidly.  Current EU foreign policy boss Javier Solana has said the service would become "the biggest diplomatic service in the world". It is estimated to cost some ¤50 billion between now and 2013.

 This EU Foreign Service is not open to democratic scrutiny, is likely to develop a life of its own and come to undermine the foreign policies of EU Member States. 

 The Sunday Times has noted that staff in overseas EU offices typically work a 4-day week, are entitled to first-class travel to and from their posting, as well as private health insurance and an allowance of up to £1,700 a month to spend on school fees.

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 EU COMMISSION TO "LOOK AT" DIRECT EU TAXES

 Agence France Presse reports that in a question-time session in the European Parliament a week ago, European Commission President Jose Barroso said he would look at the idea of raising direct EU taxation.  Asked if he agreed with Herman Van Rompuy, the new EU President, that there should be EU taxes, he said: "I intend to look at all issues of taxation in the EU. We have to look at this; we have to look at all resources of the EU.  We have promised it to the Parliament, the programme with which I was elected was to look at possible ´own resources´ and this is in the programme that was adopted by this European Parliament." 

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EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT VAN ROMPUY AN ARCH FEDERALIST

Herman Van Rompuy, 62, has said that he favoured the Lisbon Treaty as long as it promoted the aim of "more Europe". He helped to draw up a strongly Euro-federalist manifesto for his Flemish Christian Democrat Party, calling for more EU power. It said: "Apart from the euro, other national symbols need to be replaced by European symbols - license plates, identity cards, presence of more EU flags, one-time EU sports events."

Speaking a fortnight ago at a private dinner organised by EU-federalist members of the Bilderberg Group at the Chateau de Val-Duchesse, where the EU´s founding Treaty of Rome was negotiated in 1957, Mr Van Rompuy backed plans for "green taxes" to fund the EU. He said: "The possibilities of financial levies at European level must be seriously examined, and for the first time large countries in the Union are open to that."

Article 311 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, which governs the means of raising money to finance the EU, provides under an amendment made by the Lisbon Treaty that the EU Council of Ministers "may establish new categories of own resources or abolish an existing category",  and the new EU President was referring to that.     

Pieter Van Cleppe, of the think-tank Open Europe, commented: "Van Rompuy is your typical EU federalist. He isn´t going to step on anyone´s toes or try to dominate the world like Tony Blair or President Sarkozy might have. But he can be relied upon to quietly make sure that the EU gets more and more powers, with less and less say for voters." 

The new EU President will earn ¤350,000 a year, taxed at 25 percent, and will have a staff of 22 press officers, assistants and administrators, in addition to 10 security agents.  This is double the salary he had as Belgian Prime Minister and  is significantly more than US President Barack Obama´s salary, which is around $400,000 a year or ¤269,000. The total cost of the President and his team will be ¤6 million a year.

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Anthony Coughlan

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