Europe from below - Carton rouge

Sarkozy: "The future of Europe in the hands of 12 wise people"

Europe — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 14:44:00 +02:00

After the French referendum and before the bad compromise on the Reform Treaty will be reached in Lisbon in next days the French president Nicolas Sarkozy proposed (*) to convoke a "wise people's committee" to reflect on the future of the E.U. in 2020 and to report back in the first half of 2009. This proposal is not democratic and shows us the new Reform Treaty is not able to solve the structural problems of the Union.

After having adopted a more democratic method to write a Constitution with the European Convention the French president is choosing a closing method to discuss about the future of Europe not open to the citizens, neither to the representatives of citizens.

The future of Europe is too important to be left to a little group of 12 wise men.

This proposal underlines very clear which type of democracy is in the head of French president. An elitist democracy that Europefrombelow doesn't like. This is the reason to give our second 'carton rouge' to Nicolas Sarkozy.

The European hypocrisy of Nicolas Sarkozy

Europe — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:28:00 +02:00

The Europefrombelow blog is very happy to award its third Carton rouge to Nicolas Sarkozy. The French President led a Bastille Day parade on Saturday along the Champs-Elysees that was joined for the first time by military contingents from all 27 countries of the European Union.

Only few weeks after the European Council decisions to delete every reference to the word Constitution in European treaties and to drop out the symbols of the Union as the hymn, the flag and the motto Sarkozy felt down in a strong contradiction.

During the Europarade the 12 stars European flag was waved jointly with the French one. http://www.youtube.com/v=ruCbR0QWXVo

And last but not least the European Ode to Joy hymn was played. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoINU7w6VFk

I have one question to all of you: is it yet possible for 27 national governments to hide the European reality to more than 450 million European citizens? How long do they have to wait for a true political integration of Europe? The European people exists ... and Europe ?

In 1941 Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi dreamt a federal Europe. Now it's time to let it become a reality.

Angela Merkel excluded EP chief to the whole of EU leaders summit

Europe — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 21:57:00 +02:00

The German chancellor has been appointed for our second carton rouge. The raison for that is ...

the motivation given to the President of European Parliament Hans Gert Poettering to justify his exclusion to the whole of EU leaders summit:

there are too many Germans already!

In the name of democracy and transparency.

Zahradil "No reference to the EU constitution" during IGC

Europe — Fri, 18 May 2007 16:08:00 +02:00

We are happy to give our 1st Carton rouge to one of the most Euroskeptic European Deputy: Jan Zahradil.

The following is the motivation:

Zahradil told Czech Business Weekly he and a few other negotiators were responsible for the exclusion of all references to the renewal of negotiations for the constitution. “Our two demands were that there should be no reference to the EU Constitution, and that there should be no explicit deadline set for ratifying it,” Zahradil said. “In the final text the constitution is not mentioned, and the deadline set is very general,” he added, saying he considered this a partial victory.

Jan Zahradil is Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Czech Republic’s representative in negotiations over the European Constitution.

Source: http://www.cbw.cz/phprs/200...