The Constitution.

international | eu | opinion/analysis Thursday June 17, 2004 13:32 by primarily concerning myself with Love, Salts, Bodily Fluids - and Synchronicity. barcelona- Spanish "catalonia" or Catalúnya or "EU region Aragon/Catalonia/rousillón"?

The European Constitution is nearing it's presentation date.

It is thus timely to open a thread here on the ideas proposed and opposed which are going into this Pan European Constitution, which Bertie is hoping will redeem his magnificence in the eyes of Irish voters ahead of his dismal general election performance which is presently scheduled for 2005.

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Ahern aims to restore image with EU triumph

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TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern will today try to put the worst week of his career behind him by clinching a deal on the EU Constitution.

He believes he has found solutions to the thorny problems which have bedevilled the negotiations.

If he secures a deal, it will go some way to restoring his image after the debacle of the European and local government elections.

Mr Ahern, in his capacity as EU president, believes he has succeeded where the previous Italian presidency failed in coming up with a package which will get at least grudging agreement from the other leaders.

They will gather in Brussels today and consider the Irish attempt to get agreement on the Constitution six months after the Italian bid ended in acrimony.

The Irish presidency believes it has found the key to the most sensitive outstanding problems, our diplomats calculating thattheir solutions to complex questions, which cut to the heart of the balance of power and sovereignty in the EU, will be accepted.

But Britain has warned that it could still block, not just the Constitution but also the Taoiseach's choice of the Belgian prime minister to be next president of the European Commission.

The key points of Bertie's proposals unveiled last night are:

* Majority votes in the Council of Ministers must have the support of 55pc of the countries, and those countries must represent at least 65pc of the EU population.

* A minimum of four countries is required to block any ministerial measures.

* Commission size will be reduced to 18, so that all member states will go one term in three without a commissioner from 2014.

* All countries will be entitled to at least six MEPs.

This is Bertie's compromise, it so far suits the current Spanish administration, the only administration in Europe not be victim of either punishment vote or abstention in the EU elections. We will remember that the previous Spanish administration of Aznar threw many spanners into the works of the fine and merovignian minds entrusted for the last five hundred days with writing the founding principles of European Constitutional Unity.

Bertie is not out of the woods, it is very likely that they deal will collapse "@ the last minute", and I'll and us and you will be doing our best to ensure it does.

Here are some of our fulcrum points:-

Section 2 of the proposed draft constitution article 4 will ban all human cloning within the EU. = "reclaim the genome!".
Now as you know, british scientists are attempting to build on the Feb23 2001 change to British Embryonic research Law to attempt the cloning of a human in the next year, an initiative supported in "scientific principle" by the Mammy Harney (she of the eggs).

Section 1 of the proposed draft constitution includes the "roots" of European civilisation, against the wishes of the Holy See, Poland, Malta and all the papists of the continental church of Rome (and previously spurred on by the former Aznar regime) no mention will be made of the "christian roots" of European Philosophy.

Whatever you think of the roots of European culture, you can be sure this sticky little article is not really "said and done" quite yet. Let us not be Aquinine not Lecky about it :-)

Another sticky point is the decision (again at Aznar's insistence -¿ didn't diminutive of stature josé maria really make life difficult?) that the building blocks of European Unity be the states of Europe and _not_ the peoples.

This means, most nationalists (elected to represent the very diverse peoples and languages and cultures of Europe, many of whom are presently contained within "super"nation-states) will call for a NO VOTE at the forthcoming referenda, which you will note, will be the fulcrum for Eurosceptics to take down Blair. THey shall do so, on the grounds that the proposed EU constitution makes no allowance for further devolution of state hood to national cultural regions, nor allowances for the accepted universal right of self-determination of nations and peoples.

Anway- that's just 3 points to begin with.

I'm sure everyone else on the team has an opinion on the EU draft constitution, and I'm sure we may profit now, (as will our united kollective chums) from opening the "leftist €urosceptic debate".

Allow me volunteer a line!

"an EU without the UK will be safer, more just, more honest and sincere, and one which will see our commitment to human rights more easily secured and is most certainly in the better interest of "RTS! 2016, the re-unification of Ireland gig".
Ergo, encourage the British Hun to leave."

sorry Bertie, but you _did_ preside the most miserable and non democratic elections yet.