GERMAN CHANCELLOR treated signing of BERLIN DECLARATION as if it were a
diplomatic triumph
-IT WASN'T
*
BLAND, VAGUE and HISTORICALLY
QUESTIONABLE.
*
Eurofacts -6th April,2007
Vol 12 No 13
The only consequence of the Berlin
Declaration was to highlight once again the gulf between the attitudes
of ordinary people and those of Europe's political ELITES.
The German Chancellor treated the
signing of the Berlin declaration as if it were a diplomatic triumph,
promising to adopt the same approach in pursuit of an agreement on the
[NEW] CONSTITUTION.
The reality is that there was no
breakthrough or any convergence of opinion about how Europe should
extricate itself from its present crisis. The Declaration
constitutes a mixture of the banal, the vague and the factually
inaccurate.
Consider, for instance, the opening
sentences:
"For centuries Europe has been an
idea, holding out hope of peace and understanding. That hope has been
fulfilled.".
If the word 'Europe' is intended to
denote the process of political unification, as the context would seem
to imply, this assertion
IS SIMPLY FALSE
FROM NAPOLEON TO HITLER
-the drive for a unified Europe has
been accompanied by
WAR and MUTUAL SUSPICION.
What has driven the EUROPEAN PROJECT
has been
"Yearning for Freedom"
-as the Declaration goes on to claim,
but French fear of Germany and Germany's
FEAR OF ITSELF.
Perpetual Crisis
Nevertheless, the content of the
Declaration and the way in which the agreement on it was reached tell us
much about the
CONDITION of the EUROPEAN UNION
-and the perpetual CRISIS in which it
has become STUCK.
In our issue of 9th March,2007 we
pointed out that , given the differences about
WHAT SHALL GO IN
-the Declaration would be either too
brief and vague, or a composite wish-list that would be lengthy,
ambivalent and internally contradictory.
Neither would do much to assist the
cause of winning approval for the
CONSTITUTION
Mrs Merkel chose the first of these two
options - the Declaration is a mere 700 words -but winning support
for an agreed text was still difficult.
Negotiations over the wording were
carried out
IN SECRET
-by "sherpas" - unnamed senior civil
servants [THE ELITE CORP] from member states -and continued right up to
the deadline.
When the European Parliament [they who
vote 600 times an hour and not always correctly-mistakes are made] came
to discuss the
DECLARATION
-two weeks before publication date they
found themselves in the extraordinary situation of doing so
WITHOUT SEEING THE TEXT
-causing complaints even from
Europhiles MEPs.
Public Derision
Instead of being signed by
representatives of the 27 governments as originally envisaged the
DECLARATION
-was signed by
JUST THREE PEOPLE:
Mrs Merkel, Manuel Barroso and
Hans-Gert Pottering, the president of the
EU PARLIAMENT
It was also noteworthy that in order to
escape public derision those responsible for translating the German text
of the
DECLARATION
-into other languages were allowed a
remarkable degree of licence [SPIN]
The original German version reads:
"We , the citizens of the European
Union , are united
" zu unserem Gluck"
-which means
"united in our fortune/happiness"
BUT
-the English text reads:
"We, the citizens of the European
Union, have united for the better".
The Danish version is similar to the
English, but then Denmark, like Britain, has a proud record of
self-government and a literal translation would not have played well
there either.
The passage which has been widely
interpreted as agreement on the need to move rabidly to a constitutional
text reads as follows:
"....we must always renew the
political shape of Europe in keeping with the times
[should read -in keeping with the needs
of the Elite brotherhood and their wonderful opportunity to be above the
law and with big pickings for the remainder of their lives]
"That is why 50 years after the
signing of the treaties of Rome we are today united in our aim of
placing the European Union on a renewed common basis before the
elections to the European Parliament in 2009".
Weak and Vague
Mrs Merkel repeatedly made it clear
that she wanted the
DECLARATION
-to serve as a springboard for a new
constitutional text which would preserve all the main elements of the
old. [possibly the majority rejected by French and Dutch voters in the
past.]
But the wording quoted above is in fact
weaker and vaguer than the conclusions adopted by the EU leaders nine
months earlier at the June 2006 summit when they agreed that
"necessary steps"
in the
"reform process"
should be taken
"in the second semester of 2008.
But while Mrs Merkel has got absolutely
nowhere in achieving her central aim she appears to have further
alienated some EU members-most notably the
POLES and CZECHS
-as a result of secretive and
undemocratic manner she went about her task.
[Well it should of been obvious from
those countries that they were dealing with an old adversary and they
should have anticipated that the Germans particularly have their own
ways of going about getting their way. Those countries are only now
realising that nothing has changed over the past centuries , when they
should have realised the obvious danger but were only interested what
they might get out of a corrupt unaccountable totalitarian police state
which they had voluntarily joined.]
This , as they rightly pointed out,
prevented public discussion of the contents of the
DECLARATION
-and they would consequently signalled
their public opposition to similar tactics being used in the case of the
CONSTITUTION.
*
Given that an independent Europe -wide
poll organised by Open Europe in the same week demonstrated that a
majority
do not think that the EU
'represents ordinary people"
-the only appreciable effect of the
Declaration was to point to the gulf in attitudes which exists between
ordinary people and Europe's political elites.
Linguistic slipperiness and
indifference to the views of ordinary people have characterised the EU
since its inception; it seems only fitting that these qualities should
have manifested themselves when the EU marked its
50th anniversary.
The surreal atmosphere which exists at
the higher levels of EU decision-making may have enabled Mrs Merkel to
convince herself that she had achieved something -
but she deludes herself.
Following the signing of the Treaty the
former Commission President Jacques Delors expressed a more realistic
view when he said that the EU's current
"crisis"
-was worse than those experienced in
the past, because
"I have a feeling that those who
reject political Europe in all its forms...think they have won the game"
Eurosceptics have not yet won the game,
although with some justice they may believe that they have won the
argument.
The reality is that political and
economic integration is continuing furtively and unlawfully outside the
context of the talks of the
CONSTITUTION.
This process will not succeed in the
long term but the truth is that matters may get very much worse
BEFORE THEY GET BETTER.
*
[Font Altered-Bolding &Underlining
Used-Comments in Brackets]
*
*
THE PEOPLE HAVE
SPOKEN-IS THE EU COMMISSION LISTENING?
*
Ditch the EU
TREATY after IRISH REJECTION
SAY VOTERS
by
Daniel
Martin
Political
Reporter
[Daily Mail-Wednesday, June
18,2008]
MORE THAN HALF of voters believe Britain should
drop the controversial European Treaty in the wake of its
rejection in last week's
IRISH REFERENDUM'
The poll comes as the Tories launch a last-ditch
bid in the
HOUSE of LORDS
today to delay the
RATIFICATION OF
THE TREATY.
And
10,000 people
have signed a
PETITION
on the
DOWNING STREET-
WEBSITE
within the past few days
JUNE16-2008
, calling on the
GOVERNMENT
NOT TO RATIFY THE BILL
[WHY DON'T YOU?]
Downing Street
website is
http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Abandon-Lisbon/
*
JUNE 18-2008
|
*
Let the people speak!
www.makeitanissue.org.uk
*
www.noliberties.com
[Latest Addition - June07]
*
www.eutruth.org.uk
*
www.thewestminsternews.co.uk
*
www.speakout.co.uk
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION
to the EU
www.telegraph.co.uk.blogs
*
GORDON BROWN WANTS TRUST-BUT WHY WON'T
HE TRUST YOU?
HELL ON EARTH IN IRAQ
*
67% want powers back from
EU-ICM poll-June 21-2007-95%
of British people want a
REFERENDUM
*
PETITION
FOR A
REFERENDUM
SIGN TODAY ON LINE
telegraph.co.uk/eureferendum
*
July 18-2007
VOTE
-2007
TO
LEAVE
THE
EUROPEAN
UNION
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE
TO SET YOU
FREE
THE
UK
INDEPENDENCE PARTY
www.ukip.org
THE QUESTION THAT THE
VOTER MUST ANSWER
‘DO
YOU WISH TO BE GOVERNED BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE, LAW AND CUSTOM OR BY THE
CORRUPT ,EXPENSIVE UNACCOUNTABLE AND CORRUPT ALIEN BUSYBODY BRUSSELS’
-SIMPLE IS IT NOT?
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE
FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER
BUT
SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS
WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES.
*
ONLY
PRO-PORTIONAL
REPRESENTATION
WILL
BRING
DEMOCRACY
BACK
TO
THE
ENGLISH
PEOPLE
*
SCOTLAND
-ITS PARLIAMENT -WALES-ITS
ASSEMBLY-ENGLAND-STILL
AWAITS ITS PARLIAMENT-WHY?
*
Home
Rule
for
Scotland
WHY
NOT
HOME
RULE
for
ENGLAND
*
[All underlined words have a
separate bulletin]
|