Lisbon treaty signed - New Dawn in Europe
IMHO, a sad day for Europe. The Lisbon treaty will "federalize" Europe and take away a lot of the powers from sovereign nations .. RIP Europe!
Europe’s elite celebrated the imminent arrival of its first president last night as the last lingering resistance to the Lisbon treaty fell away with the stroke of a pen in Prague.
European leaders wasted no time in starting the process to choose their new president from a range of names including Tony Blair. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Prime Minister of Sweden, which holds the EU presidency, began a round of telephone diplomacy to determine a shortlist of names.
Mr Reinfeldt echoed the feelings of many EU leaders when he declared that the treaty process had gone on for “far too long” since grand plans for an EU constitution dating back to 2001 were scuppered by referendum defeats in France and the Netherlands. The Lisbon treaty was the brainchild of Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Angela Merkel of Germany to revive most of the contents of the constitution but in a form that required a referendum only in the Irish Republic, and even then the first vote was lost in 2008.
“After a long journey, the Treaty of Lisbon has reached the goal,” Mr Reinfeldt said last night. “All EU member states have now ratified the text. The treaty enters into force on December 1 and all the details must now be put into place . . . As soon as possible I will call for an EU summit.”
Mr Brown said that the Czech President’s decision marked “an important and historic step for all of Europe”.
The Times
Bingo! :)
Jervis: THIS is the reason for: "Why the neck I am here in Qatar" :)
blood..who said blood here?
"America is sick:thanks God we have EU!" ;)
Gica! Saw that pmcorrea likes beer (from profile)...so go for it!
PS Good point!How many European ppl?? Only 3 for the moment...seems that being out of their territories most of ppl become less interested in what's "on the stage" back home...
Brit man, it's amazing how many European people in QL are interested in EU problem...or having an opinion....
I just want to underline that I'm a bloody concerned citizen! Let's paaartyyyyy! :)
That's the dark side of EU...Politically correctness sucks!
I have no problem with the above. i do have issues with imposition of legal.
For example, last year the EU court of human rights overturned a british court ruling to deport a murderer and rapist.
Comes with the territory, Brit. No border, free movement of the work power...Add also health system, insurance system, education system...
The main issue I have is the erosion of sovereign laws. Brussels will "impose" its legal system on member countries. It may also begin to standardize taxation.
"S: (n) patriot, nationalist (one who loves and defends his or her country)
S: (n) nationalist (an advocate of national independence of or a strong national government)"
If I take the literary definition, I am nationalist also!
Abuyunus, EU is a union of INDEPENDENT states,each one with their OWN government. All the EU laws MUST be approved, individually, by each country Parliament/Law Maker. EU does not exclude the members independence and sovereignty.
United in Diversity ! That's EU slogan.
Darn, you make me look like a EU supporter...In fact, I would like my country to be more neutral.Romaniazerland. :)
Not to sound too paranoid but I'm sure the "One World Government" is being put up behind the scenes. You're hopefully not right about that but it's possible.
@pmcorrea & @ Gica Contra
Believe in the propaganda from Brussel or Obama and sleep well. But don't wake up surprised, when all of us leaded by an "One World Government", called actual "United Nations" and robbed from any individuality, like our differences and our Nationalities as well.
I'm Nationalist and proud.
Abuyunus, Germany need the other "poor" members to keep running, that's why they were admitted for the first place: cheap labor hand.Also the "richest" members keep forgetting that they remove their trash and polluting industry in the "poor" member "back yard". And remember also, that the "poor" member was admitted after a majority of the "rich" members vote...It's like the rich guy is inviting the poor guy in his home but is putting his bed in the garage.
Also, if there are a majority like you back home, you can make a referendum and withdraw from EU any time.
PS1: I vote against admission of Romania in EU because I feel it like we've been dragged in. Now all the sh!t is stopped at the EU border, more exactly to "poor" members border. Very convenient for the "rich" members, isn't it?
PS2:Romania was the 4-th European economical power between the WW1 and WW2. But, unfortunately, we didn't have a Marshall plan to help us after the WW2...
Abuyunus, I hate that crap. That's what Obama is trying to do to us back home. It should not be my responsibility to "lift up" the poor. I was raised in the lower middle class and with the help of my mother grew up, paid for my education, and became self sufficient.
In the EU, Germany and the other rich countries need to pay for the other new (poor) members. The national rules will be replaced 1 by 1 with rules from Brussel as a part of the "New World Order".
That sucks. The NWO is not coming, is already arrived.
Yep pmcorrea, there are a lot of institutions taking care about this issues: WTO, IATA, IMO, UNICEF, OECD, FAO, WHO, UNWTO etc and a lot of countries signed agreement with them.
Good call Gica. I never thought about the current world scale of those laws.
So what? Put your "heavy cavalry", Monty Python, to make jokes about him! You'll win for sure! :)
But we might get "President Blair " :O(
Brit, laws regarding the Human Rights, Ecology, Transporting, Banking, Trading are already working on world scale and the remaining ones are each state internal kitchen:Constitution, Internal and Foreign Affairs, Labor & Family etc.
Anyhow, you still have your currency and your left lane driving.And your Queen! :)
Brit, I too think you all need each other, but how do you expect the EU to help the economy without have a bit of power behind them? Hopefully they will exercise their powers carefully. Let's give them the benefit of the doubt though. This will help greatly with economic security.
Yes, we need each other. However, the pupose of the EU originaly as a trading and economic block. Now , the centralized EU administration will be able to impose legal and other constraints on soveriegn nations, thus overriding their laws.
Sorrryyy! Corrected...
C'mon! Europe is so "interconnected" that this thing is just confirming what we know since long time: we need each other and we have to be united to resist in front of US economy and the Asians "tigers". This is a normal step forward, a evolution. And maybe in 50 years we will ask ourselves "Why took it so long?" and this "federal union" to be taken as "natural".
I don't like to hear that "If America is sick, the World is sneezing...". Instead I would like to hear "America is sick:thanks God we have EU!" ;)
Oh, did you mean sick? I guess that makes more sense.
Gica, what is seek?
I'm agree with you. A black day for the independence of the countries.