Europe from below - Comments

No Europe No Party! - IgorCaldeira

IgorCaldeira — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 21:16:49 +02:00

Thank you very much for the link. I'll do my best to promote it among portuguese people.

The European hypocrisy of Nicolas Sarkozy - Europe

Europe — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 11:25:39 +02:00

First of all we don't have anymore a Constitution but only a Treaty. A Treaty is a contract between States. A Constitution is for and by citizens. The 27 National Governments denied the Constitutional perspective. They didn't respect the desire of the European citizens that in the same days of European Council expressed themselves (see Eurobarometer) in favour of a European Constitution and a European referendum.

Concerning Sarkozy's european feeling I think, honestly, that he is not a true European. He uses Europe because France needs it for his 'grandeur' but he (as the other 26 leaders) doesn't accept to give more power to Europe in the field, for example, of foreign and security policy.

France and UK are not open to substitute their seat in the UN Security Council with a European one. Europe will not be an actor of peace until it will have a common policy (with majority vote).

I have found very contradictory the fact that the 27 European Leaders deleted every reference to the symbols of European identity in the treaties and only after few days Sarkozy used them in a public and official parada.

National governments hided (in the treaties) the European reality because they hope to maintain a national power they don't have anymore.

Please stop to think and act with a distorted eye.
Please forgive national view and adopt a cosmopolitan view. The last view is the only one that permit us to read what is happening and to find a solution to our problems.

Nicola

The European hypocrisy of Nicolas Sarkozy - g

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:36:58 +02:00

I am not sure I understand your recrimination. Is it for the simplified constitution ? the fact that such a european Bastille day was long long overdue ? that you doubt the trueness of Sarkozy´s european feeling ?

EU summit: proclaimed success is democratic failure - cuzcco

cuzcco — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 08:36:09 +02:00

Seifert worries that "Europe will not be able to speak with one voice in the world", surely this is ignoring the cogent fact of the matter that on many things EU member states do not speak with one voice. Surely if 'Europe' were to speak with one voice this would be whilst gagging the other voices trying to have their position heard.
I see a few contradictions in what Seifert says and what he claims to want. Seifert decries the current lack of citizens' input in EU policy and then he incongrously says "if there is one lesson to be learned from the Summit failure, then it is that no future reform can work with the same outdated principle of secret intergovernmental bargaining and unpredictable ratifications in 27+ member states." He seems to forget that citizens ability to ratify treaties by referendum is one of the only times they get to directly influence the EU; surely removing this right distances the EU still further from the citizens of it's 27 member states.
I'll finish by quoting a line from the start of this article where you talk of what you see to be the EU's biggest structural problem: "the right of every random government to stop Europe from moving forward and tackling the challenges of our future". Indeed Europe hit it's current impasse precisely beause two 'random' European nations threw out the Constitution...we should have ignored the voice of the people, it only gets in the way!

The European people's red line. - Mario

Mario — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 16:49:35 +02:00

From my point of view Croatians wants to become fully-fledged member of the EU Union. EU made job that much harder on Croatia, settlement based on deeply felt injustices and EU support for the Titoist-style Communists. Sanader and Mesic have Croatia join as quickly as possible and at any cost is a reflection of their utter bankruptcy as leaders. Their EU fast-track policy is a cheap substitute for the kind of real reforms Croatia needs to undertake if it is to become a healthy, prosperous and vibrant democracy.

The economic and political injustices
Croatia will be transformed into the Puerto Rico of Southeastern Europe: an impoverished economic and political colony of Brussels, whose main purpose is to serve as a tourist destination for vacationing Europeans. Yet as the bulk of the Croatian people suffer, the former communist, as well as current leaders elites will prosper. They will continue the Titoist-style cronyism and rampant corruption that is stunting the country's development. They will make sure to siphon off large chunks of targeted EU subsidies and foreign aid which will enable them to preserve their fancy cars, apartments and privileged status. The current leaders are slick Balkan conmen masquerading as statesmen. If EU falls in Croatia EU is finished.

The injustices of richer country taking from a poorer country's
Hunger for Croatia's Adriatic coast and land is not fair: But Slovenia now a part of the EU gang, is not the only country, EU's land grab crime is lower then we as a free people can prosses. The EU's top diplomat, Jose Manuel Barroso, warned Croatia, no its bully' Titoist-style leaders in Croatia for Adriatic coast and fishing in Croatia's waters. Slovene and EU fishermen like to be able to go about their business unhindered in Croatian waters. What is sad about all this, is the fact that Italy and Slovenia, now a part of the EU gang, disallow Croatia from fishing in their waters, yet they create a storm if Croatia wishes to place the same regulations on their own waters. This is an example of a richer country taking from a poorer country's resources. If this poorer country says anything, then the richer country calls his gang (the EU countries) and they try to intimidate Croatia into giving in. This is just one of many examples.

The injustices of Hague
There is only one man who stands in the way of this path to Croatian destruction: General Ante Gotovina who was charged for drive out rebel minority Serbs. The general is in Hague offering the last line of resistance to the disastrous policies of appeasement by both Sanader and Mesic. By preventing Croatia's bankrupt ruling class from turning the country into a vassal of EU, Gen. Gotovina is saving Croatia one more time. Carla Del Ponte imagined General Ante Gotovina would be an appropriate political "counterpart" for Slobodan Milosevic and other Serbian war criminals such as Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, although the former General Ante Gotovina defeated them and stopped their very crimes. His operation, because of which he is currently awaiting trial in The Hague, was evaluated by the western military experts as one of the cleanest ones in the contemporary Western military history. It caused a minimum of the incidents, given its large scope and an unfavorable balance of forces in the region in which Milosevic's frenzied butchers were fully equipped for the war. The only crime bigger than the war crime is the post war one, for which the aggressor is absolved. Let there be no doubt, Serbia is guilt as sin of the massacre Croatia and Srebrenica. Genocide is not a crime like shoplifting, or even simple first-degree murder. Genocide is not a matter for a protracted criminal trial by an organization that can barely utter the word “genocide” while hundreds of thousands and butchered in Darfur and Somalia and Rwanda and ...

And the EU wonders why there is a growing anti-EU feel in Croatia. It seems that the Croats will endure this insult, in the name of peaceful reintegration. From my point of view, the EU could have made a decisive statement that it would no longer tolerate injustices but it didn’t. It looked into the face of evil, blinked, and babbled in bureaucratic impotence.

European democracy 'sous embargo': draft IGC mandate unveiled - Nat Röfu

Nat Röfu — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:51:27 +02:00

Treaty on the functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

So cleaver.

I am sure Ms. Wallström has a strategy to communicate the thing to the European citizen.

Ops...will we be still citizens after the European Council? Or have we been dropped out from the acquis communitarie?

Marco

No Europe No Party! - ilyana

ilyana — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:43:18 +02:00

mmm i think what's happening here & now in cafe babel - the community - and in european youthmediadays and similar initiatives is a clear step towards the demands presented above, so keep up the good work:> I think the forums and public discussion are what was missing

No Europe No Party! - rits

rits — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 21:08:31 +02:00

Absolutely we need a constitution, maybe a little more simple than thε initial text, with president etc. If not, we will be forced to stand at the end of global queue

No Europe No Party! - Europe

Europe — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:11:49 +02:00

Can you send us the link or the summary of the survey published by the financial times ?

thank you.
nicola

European referendum campaign newsletter 01/07 - Tex

Tex — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:48:06 +02:00

Dear Europe (by lack of a more personal name...),

Your simple answers provide startling insights in your motivations and goals. Let me be clear: I applaud your political involvement and intention to be part of the solution rahter than the problem, but in fact this is exactly what you will make us part of.

My bet is that you are very much in favor of EU symbols like the blue flag and Ode to Joy. To me, that is nationalism in a different jacket. Nation states are maybe not the best solution, but it surely is the less worse one.

Indeed, climate change cannot be solved by France alone, but neither can it be solved by 6% of the world population that lives one on top of the other on the tiny dot of the world surface we call EU!

If there is any global problem you want to address by founding a federalist state you should go for the big prize of a world government. And that's where you get me scared...

Instead of focussing on how we can best institutionalise our international cooperation, we should focus on the problems itself. Binding treaties, commitment to international coopeeration and stimulating innovation will do a much better job at making this world a better one.

Best,
Tex

No Europe No Party! - Cochonpolitikon

Cochonpolitikon — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:11:03 +02:00

Did you read the survey on this published by the financial times?

No Europe No Party! - elcondorpasa

elcondorpasa — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:41:22 +02:00

I can hardly believe the things written in this article but it sounds so "real". The way of politics is nearly the same in Turkey:Big heads arrange everything behind the doors and just as if we are in an experiment they revise after getting the results which usually give so much pain to cavies sorry "citizens"!

European referendum campaign newsletter 01/07 - Europe

Europe — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 01:25:23 +02:00

Dear Tex,

thank you for your comment.

The answer is very very simple to me.

We need a federation, or a European government as you prefer, because there are some problems that cannot be solved by national governments and are common to every citizens in Europe.

The problem than cannot be solved by national countries are the same you have mentioned in your comment:
preventing climate change and immigrants are clear issues that need a common effort by a true European government.

To prevent climate change we need common solution to reduce or change our lifes. It makes no sense to Germany alone, for example, to make a good policy respect to this issue if all other European countries take another decisions.

Immigration is another problem that cannot be solved by Spain or Italy or France or Greece. Think about the movement of million of people coming from under developing countries towards Europe and richest countries. Do you really think that France can adopt a policy that can stop this global movement ? I think that the only option is that immigration policy will become a European issue. A European government (with a budget) can make serious policy starting, for example, investments directly in developing countries in order to make them indipendent. A European government has the power to implement a Marshall plan for Africa or to drop the illegal deb that is already been paid by those countries.

If you want to do something you shoud have a federal government that can adopt common policy that should be followed by every European country.

Creating or advocating for a European federation doesn't mean that regional level will not work or exist. It's true the opposite. Federalism is best way to have different level of governments starting from local to global (through regional, national, regional and world level). National states often oppose regionalism because they see in it a shift in power. Instead regionalism grew up better inside the European integration process. We can say that national states are losing power in two directions because there are problems too little to be solved by them (that can be better managed by regional level) and other too big that are better faced by sovranational institutions.

The principle of subsidiarity (one of the main principle of federalism) says that each problem shoul be solved at the appropriate and lowest possible level.

So there are local problems that can be solved by municipality and global problems that also Europe is not able to solve. In these cases we need a world government.

So dear Tex if you want to be realistic and solve REAL issues you have to abandon the old national view and adopt a cosmopolitan vision of the world.

European referendum campaign newsletter 01/07 - Tex

Tex — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 00:03:16 +02:00

Hi,

So, could you remind me why we need a federation? Are you that convinced governance by the European Commission and Parliament is better than the job done by national authorities?

Don't get me wrong, I think the European construction of the past 50 years has been a great success, but why are you advocating a strong European central government? To me these are the old views. Just look at what's happening in Spain, Belgium, UK: regional governments get more and more recognition. In fact, the world counts 27 new nations since 1990! Yep, Europe is leading that trend.

Instead of making people believe we have a major institutional crisis on our hands, wouldn't it be better to focus attention and resources on REAL issues like reforming education, innovation, including immigrants, genomics, preventing climate change, etc... ?

Tex

Noam Chomsky. The installation of a missile defense system in Eastern Europe is, virtually, a declaration of war. - Balázs Tornai

Balázs Tornai — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:16:40 +02:00

HI Guys!

I don't agree with all U.S. actions or even thier general philosophy how they approach the world. But: I must say that for every one of us, it is always better to have a U.S. anti ballistic missile base in our countries then a Russian or, please God forbid, Iranian...

more coming up next if anyone interested.

Btw: I am an ex Izraeli fighter soldier... so I understand a little bit.

Ciao to you all:

Balázs