The Irish referendum is on the horizon. So it is time to explain the Lisbon Treaty (again!). Here it is: The second edition (“Lisbon ’09 – The Rematch version”) of the most entertaining Lisbon treaty paper ever published and of course it is bigger, better, faster and with Omega 3: So, enjoy Jason O’Mahony’s New improved Spoofer’s Guide to the Losbon Treaty. Everything you ever wanted to know about the Lisbon Treaty … and written in “Pub English”!
Jason O’Mahony explains the reasons behind the guide:
So why write this guide? Because I was so underwhelmed by the Yes side in the last referendum. We were so bad at communicating our message, and at replying to the, let’s face it, tinfoil-inside-my-hat-to-stop-Martian-radio-signals threats coming from elements of the No side. So I decided to do something about it. I wrote The Spoofer’s Guide to the Lisbon Treaty to explain what I understood and felt about an EU that wasn’t the evil monster that the No side were claiming. I put it together with some friends and sent it out, where, judging by the emails I got back from Ireland and the continent and the US, it struck a chord with people.
Here’s the new version. Those of you who read the old one will recognise a lot of it, but there’s also some new stuff in it. It is a biased guide, in that I am biased and support the Treaty, but I’d like to think that it’s not slavish about it.
[...] Jason O’Mahoney has the improved Spoofers Guide to the Lisbon treaty [...]
I´m from Germany and I beg you to voto no. A lot of people all over Europe have hope in you that you defend democracy and souveranity.
EU Commissioner Charly McCreevy said on 26. Juni 2009 to the Irish Times, that if there had been referendums in all European countries the Lisbon treaty would have been rejected in 95% of these countries.
The EUlites don`t care about our opinion..
“We know that nine out of 10 people will not have read the Constitution and will vote on the basis of what politicians and journalists say. More than that, if the answer is No, the vote will probably have to be done again, because it absolutely has to be Yes.”
~Jean-Luc Dehaene, Former Belgian Prime Minister and Vice-President of the EU Convention, Irish Times, 2 June 2004 ~
Greetings from Germany
So your only argument is to “defend democracy and sovereignty”? It is pretty vague…so maybe you want to clarify? Point is that compared with the Nice Treaty, the Lisbon Treaty is an improvement in terms of democracy: More co-decision procedures, more powers for the European Parliament and national parliaments. It is not perfect but better compared with the situation at the moment.
Personally I am very skeptical about referendums in general. We all know that this can be manipulated and the question asked will never be answered as many other factors play a role as well. To vote on a 500 page legal document seems to me not very useful – and as we have seen it is very attractive for all sorts of populist claims and quite a few lies. Ernst Fraenkel said once that if you don’t trust your parliament you suffer under a democratic inferiority complex…
Your second argument should also apply to “national elites” and directly elected national politicians not only to some undefined “EUlites”. Who decided about the Lisbon Treaty? – It might come as surprise but national politicians that got elected by their citizens are in the driving seat to decide about EU treaties! Moreover every national parliament had to ratify the treaty, so I don’t know why you blame it all on “EUlites”….
I try in my bad english. The Bundesverfassungsgericht in Germany said the EU-parliament isn`t legitimated domocratically, it`s not representative.
It`s very weak and can´t control the Kommission and the Rat which set in the judicative. There is no control!
Than – Brüsel ist the city of the lobbyists. We wold have a very powerful economic executive …
A German song for you:
a film from Germany:
Pleace vote for democracy and against the treaty of lisbon
Dear irish people!
Pleace stop the treaty of lisbon! Is is antidemocartic, militaristic, antisocial. The disadvantages are much bigger, than the advantages. The EU can live with its actuell laws. They should only be changed into a democratic direction. With the treaty of lisbon, the european council is able to change this treaty in great parts without asking the parliament. This is nearly the same law, which mades the nationl- rassistic- party of Germany so powerfull in our country in the year 1933. Our basic law (the german constitution) and all other european constitutions should not be replaced by the treaty of lisbon. But the new treaty tries to bring all right- sytstems in a lower level than the new european right. Here is my informationpage: http://sites.google.com/site/euradevormwald/english . When you have some more english information, pleace send me a link or text or write it into the visitors book of my page. And pleace spread this text all over Ireland.
In the hope in your activities for a better Europe, Felix Staratschek, Freiligrathstr. 2, D- 42477 Radevormwald (Germany)