Democracy versus Sovereignty

A letter from Paris this morning to the Irish Independent, linked here, nicely states the EU dilemma, a quote:

The Lisbon Treaty is neither a literary nor a political masterpiece and its attempt to improve democratic accountability in what is still essentially a union of states and not of people serves only to show that the EU can promote democracy or accept national sovereignty but cannot successfully do both at the same time. The EU we have and will continue to have is no more or less than a mechanism for permanent negotiation among member states which enables them to make decisions, generally based on compromise, and ensures that they observe what they have decided. Although the individual member states are democracies, the process by which they together reach and implement decisions is not, and cannot be, fully democratic.

The only honest position for purists, such as Mr Arnold, who want full respect for both national sovereignty and democracy, is to support Ireland leaving the EU, since, by definition, the EU, being a union of states, cannot reconcile what are, in the European context, two conflicting aspirations.

I particularly like the brutal honesty of the author, a Mr James Leavy, of Rue de la Baume, evidenced with these few words "The EU we have and will continue to have.." showing the brutal contempt the EU federalist fanatics hold for any who argue for an alternative way.

The reality contained in the second paragraph of the quotation above holds true as the EU chooses to deepen and broaden into areas not desired by the people of Europe. Having attempted to grab a portion of Sovereignty (which itself is indivisible), and asserting they have been successful in that aim, they are now determined to obtain the whole thus crushing the democracy of the then non-existing democratic nation states. Libertas, in arguing for a smaller concentration of powers in a brief constitution, must confront this dilemma very soon by defining exactly which parts of the present EU it finds unacceptable and setting out the exact areas where a non-democratic Treaty bound group of Democratic Nation States can allow a trading EU to exert its authority. Until that is accomplished, I agree with Mr Leavy, that withdrawal from the EU, in my case speaking for the interests of the UK, remains the only sane option.