Lisbon Treaty rejected - Forward for Democracy in the EU!
Friday, 13 June 2008
While the counting is still undergoing, the vast majority of constituencies in Ireland show a clear win for the 'no' camp after yesterday's vote on the Lisbon Treaty.
Forward for Democracy in the EU
Comment from chairman of the EU Democrats, Jens-Peter Bonde:
The Irish referendum was a convincing No from all areas in Ireland, except from the prime minister’s own constituency and a couple of upper class constituencies of the green island.
The treaty now needs to be archived together with the just as much rejected EU-constitution.
A new democracy process may start to find new rules of play which can unite us instead of splitting us.
Why not elect a convention to establish draft rules with more transparency, closeness and democracy and then send the proposal for referendums in all EU member states at the same day?
Why not have the referendums together with the European elections in June 2009.
The NO in Ireland could have come from all other countries if they have been allowed to vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The French president Nicolas Sarkozy admitted that in a group meeting with the group leaders in the European Parliament back in November. His conclusion was that referendums should be cancelled – my conclusion will be: Why not establish a text that people will applaud?
Below I will suggest 10 democratic demands for the next treaty.
The Irish NO could have been much higher if conditions had been fair and balanced. They were not.
The government refused to send the treaty to Irish citizens so that they could judge it on their own.
Instead the government used taxpayers’ money to send two booklets to every household without one single argument for voting no.
The independent referendum commission took the same line as the government and did not send the treaty out with pros and cons. They concealed the constitution character of the Lisbon Treaty and the radical change in the Irish constitution which they were obliged to inform voters about, but did not do so.
The referendum commission directly misled Irish voters on the possibility for member states for nominate commissioners. The Lisbon treaty only allows member states to suggest candidates.
They told half truth about taxation, WTO, fundamental rights, and other issues, which are exposed in a critical paper with 8 relevant corrections.
Ireland employers were asked to convince their employees to go and vote yes and many sent emails to their employees threatening enonomic loss unless they votes yes.
The press is mainly dominated by the yes side and they have used their power to influence voters for a yes. Public radio and TV took in general the yes side in their so called objective presentation.
The radio and TV discussions of the treaty were significantly unbalanced.
The EU Democrats invite everyone to rally behind ten democratic demands, set out below.
Let us prepare the next European elections in June 2009 by having lists and candidates consisting of genuine democrats in all member states.
Below I suggest the ten points we could demand now:
---------------------------
Further comments
Jens-Peter Bonde in Ireland
tlf. +45 20 49 02 51
TEN DEMOCRATIC DEMANDS
1. An end to secretive public servant legislation: Any EU-law should be supported by 75% of the member countries in the Council AND a simple majority in the European Parliament. Judge-made laws must be stopped or let them be approved by the Council and the EP.
2. All meetings in the EU shall be public, unless a decision – which can be questioned – is taken to close them. All documents shall be available to the public, unless specifically made secret. The names of all participants in the working groups shall be made public online, unless individual participants are protected, through a substantiated exception.
3. Information regarding all expenses based on funds from the taxpayers shall be freely available online, unless a specific – and substantiated – exception is made for a given case.
4. Clear out unnecessary laws and subsidies. Introduce a termination clause for all rules, so that rules and subsidy schemes are automatically discontinued, unless explicitly renewed.
5. Introduce elections to all leading offices – just as in regular democracies. The President and the Commissionaires shall be accountable to the publicly elected politicians in the European Parliament and the national parliaments. And why not let each country choose its own Commissioner, at the same time and in the same manner as they elect their members of the European Parliament?
6. Use minimum-regulation instead of standardisation through total-harmonisation. Allow the member countries to be pioneer countries e.g. when it comes to the fight against climate change, to health or to the environment.
7. Give the publicly elected an appropriate salary through the front door. Stop the extra pay at the back door – through cheating with travel allowances and appointments. Clean up the European Parliament, so that it will get the authority and legitimacy to clear up in all the European Institutions. Let electronic voting show how the members vote – all the time.
8. Stop wasting both millions of euros as well as CO2 with meetings in both Brussels and Strasbourg. The Parliament can on its own decide to hold all sessions in Brussels. Then the prime ministers and presidents will probably come up with an appropriate compensation
9. Remove all expenses to propaganda and instead let the Medias cover the European institutions freely. Do this by giving them unrestricted access to all buildings and by paying for press-rooms with all the necessary technical facilities.
10. Make a new and simple “Basic Treaty” and send it for referendums in all member countries at the same time. It must not be more complicated than the prime ministers can manage to read and understand it before signing it.