EU's Sarkozy in Dublin

A good summary from the Irish Times is here. Another view is in the Irish Independent from here. It appears that the reality now is that the Treaty of Nice will provide the legal basis for the EU for years ahead, while quite illegally that institution will choose to operate as if Lisbon had been ratified thus bringing the anti-democratic wannabe super-state into ever growing public contempt. Most immediately the June 2009 elections to the European Parliament will be on Nice Treaty membership that I listed below last week. The French President who has been offering the carrot of an Irish Commissioner continuing as a reward for Lisbon Treaty ratification by the Irish, was yesterday confronted with the fact that Nice states the reduction from 27 to 18 Commissioners requires unanimity. Refresh your memories on the late-night end to the Nice Treaty negotiations and what we are now lumbered with from The Economist article "So that's all agreed then, Dec 14 2000: NICE" from here. Almost exactly three years later I was commentating on Ironies, linked here, on the Presidential ambitions of the evil Tony Blair for even the planning to foist what became the EU Constitutional Treaty/EU Reform Treaty/ Lisbon Treaty upon Britain, which I planned to merely selectively quote, but is here in full to better illustrate how much we owe the Irish and how grateful we must remain that at least we are presently only burdened with the dreadful Nice Treaty and its equally obnoxious forerunners: Blair's Presidential Ambitions Several commentators, including this blog, have tended to assume that Blair's enthusiasm for the provisions and directions of the document drawn up in the Convention led by Valery Giscard d'Estaing were motivated by his possible ambitions to fill the presidential office it envisioned. The apparent total disregard of his government for the historical democratic rights and individual freedoms of the people of this country, including the gross misrepresentation of the nature of the proposed treaty by his Foreign Secretary and himself to Parliament, left little other logical explanation. Suspecting such duplicity as being solely driven by personal ambition is one thing, but suspicion is what it would normally have to remain when dealing with the inner desires of another man. Extraordinarily, however, in the statement issued by Number 10 of the press conference delivered by Blair and Straw, following the breakdown of the IGC, we now have more or less concrete evidence in the Prime Minister's own words that such is indeed his ambition. Among what is mostly incomprehensible double talk, if not at times just plain gobbledegook, is this statement: I don't think in the near term it is going to be a dramatic problem, but I think as time goes on, unless Europe has a really effective way of working, and I think that means that you need a full time coordinator of these Council meetings, you know you can see with what has happened today and in the past few days, I mean the Italian Presidency has performed heroics, but it is difficult for them, each successor country to take that on, so I think there are areas there where in time it will be extremely important, for Europe to operate effectively, that we have this new agreement. It could perhaps be argued that the Prime Minister is merely suggesting any competent coordinator or President could fill such a role, but that case for me is weak. To argue a negotiation failed for the lack of something only a successful outcome could deliver is somewhat disingenuous. The point being made also seems to me irrelevant to the question asked, indicating this was the item already at the forefront of Blair's mind. What Blair said boils down in essence to this: 'Europe can't work without a strong leader' Blair as PM sees himself as such. No strong leader envisages himself working for another - Blair must therefore consider himself as the man to lead the EU. In my view, therefore, to create an EU Presidential Post became Blair's principal objective and the remaining constitutional treaty terms under which the people of Britain and all other nation states in Europe would lose many of their democratic rights became matters of minor importance. I believe that it is up to the people of Britain who have seen their own institutions of government and political conventions despoiled by this self-driven, but otherwise directionless man, to ensure he is exposed and removed from power before he has further opportunity to coordinate a similar fate for the whole of Europe. Hutton and other looming difficulties happily make this appear an increasingly practical proposition. Britain, to my mind, certainly cannot afford a resumption of constitutional negotiations while its negotiating team is headed by one who so obviously displays his own personal agenda lies with the 'opposing' side. The entire Press Release is linked from ( here) (The link no longer works and merely reaches a statement from Patricia Hewitt) Luckily I quoted the section that best illustrates the point of the posting. President Sarkozy it will be recalled first backed Blair as first EU President for it was only through the conspiring of the timing of handover between Brown and Blair that Parliament could be best delivered for sacrifice. When such was accomplished Blair's name was removed from the prospective Presidential candidate list, as I also frequently predicted on my blogs, thus making the planned trashing of the nation's democracy, liberties and sovereignty somehow even more grotesque. When and how will Blair and Brown be brought to account?