Disgusting: European elite response to No votes

2005-06-17

Richard Moore

Friends,

I usually don't post items to this list two days in a row. I
like to give people time to look at material before sending
more out. But so many stories are breaking these days that
it's hard to hold back. I'll give you a relatively short
article today, and tomorrow I'll post the promised (and
longer) article on "The Ties That Bind China, Russia and
Iran".

Please let me know how you feel about the frequency-of-
postings issue.

Comments follow article.

rkm

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http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/front/2005/0617/3698454857HM1LEAD.html

EU leaders agree to abandon deadline on constitution

Mark Brennock and Denis Staunton in Brussels
Irish Times
17/06/2005

The Government is set to postpone indefinitely Ireland's
referendum on the EU Constitution after the European Summit
decided in Brussels last night that the ratification process
should be put on hold.

European Union leaders agreed to abandon the deadline of
November 2006 for ratifying the constitution but said it was
up to each member-state to decide when to proceed with
ratification.

Luxembourg's prime minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, whose
country holds the EU Presidency, said that countries planning
to hold referendums would need more time to persuade voters of
the constitution's virtues. He said the EU needed a period of
"reflection, explanation and debate".

Mr Juncker said that EU leaders agreed that those countries
that had not yet ratified the constitution.would be unlikely
to do so by mid-2007, and it was now up to each individual
member state to decide how to proceed while a "period of
reflection" was launched.

The summit's failure to impose a mandatory freeze on
ratification means that the Government must decide when
Ireland should hold a referendum.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said that the
constitution remained the best choice for Europe and for
Ireland but that the pause should be of "a sufficient period
in order to try and convince some sceptical people".

Most leaders wanted the suspension of the ratification process
to apply to all member-states, although Malta, which has
started ratification, argued that each country should decide
for itself how to proceed.

Mr Ahern said that the Taoiseach had argued that EU leaders
should describe the suspension of ratification efforts as a
"pause for engagement" rather than a "pause for reflection" as
it has been described in advance of the summit.

"The Taoiseach led the charge arguing that it should be a
period of engagement, a period of selling what we all believe
in as a project, and that was picked up by a lot of people,"
he said.

The Taoiseach referred back to Ireland's "No" vote in the
first referendum on the Nice Treaty. According to Dermot Ahern
he told them "how we tried to engage with civil society,
particularly through the Forum for Europe" and how this had
led to a Yes vote in the second referendum.

Ireland, he said, had had a period of engagement with the
people, rather than one of reflection, and this was how the
rest of Europe should respond to the anti-Treaty sentiment in
many EU member states.

He said it had been broadly accepted among the 25 EU heads of
state and government that because of the No votes "there is
uncertainty in other countries, including our own. To rush
into a referendum [ in] the atmosphere of indecision would be
injudicious", he said.

Mr Juncker said that ratification of the constitution would
proceed and that there was no Plan B but a "Plan D for
dialogue and democracy".
---<snip>---

© The Irish Times

-------------------

rkm>

In this article we learn exactly what  Tony Blair meant by a
"period of reflection."  Taoiseach Bertie Ahern puts it
plainly when he says the period should be called one of
"engagement". Juncker, spelling it out even more clearly, says
he needs more time to "persuade voters." Tricky Tony at least
shows a bit of skill in subterfuge.

Not only are these leaders expressing total disrespect for
democracy, and for their supposed roles as representatives of
their populations, but they are quite happy to state this
publicly. I only hope that the people of Europe, having shown
signs of waking up, will fight back vigorously to this elite
program of European fascism.

My  guess is that the "period" will be used to install Diebold
voting machines in those countries where voters show dangerous
signs of having common sense. 

rkm


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