Belgium split threatens Europe not just the EU and the Lisbon Treaty!

We watch in amazement as events unfold which cry out for a statesman of stature to step forward and cry "ENOUGH" Look at this poll from Belgium as reported in EU Observer, linked here. Consider these statements: 1. Forty nine percent of people in the south-lying Belgian region of Wallonia said they would support "rattachment" - a re-joining - with France in the event of a break-up with the northern Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. 2. On the French side, 60 percent of respondents would like to join-up with their Belgian neighbours, up from 54 percent in previous surveys. The majority in favour is even higher in bordering regions such as Pas-de-Calais. A re-negotiation of the Lisbon Treaty is surely the least significant result of any such break-up. Touch one border within Europe and a dreadful precedent will have been established. The results will be internal as well as external. France, for example, will be impacted as the balance of the country will have been altered, reducing the weight of the South and West in favour of the North and East, as clearly already understood in the quoted paragraph numbered 2 above. Within the EU the balance of MEP seats and EU Council weighting votes will be a matter of concern to all. The relative balance of power between France and Germany will shift and relief might be sought elsewhere such as in the Alsace. What will be the result for the Belgian monarchy? Queen Elizabeth II of Britain would do well to reflect on possible outcomes as the United Kingdom now looks likely to follow the fracturing example set by Belgium. The loss of a national currency must be one sure cause of this disaster. No state could have drifted into this situation over so many months had its currency reflected the growing crisis. Britain's totally incompetent governance gives no confidence that the continuance of the pound sterling will prove a barrier to a similar split given the dreadful indebtedness incurred by Gordon Brown. How can this collapse into chaos be halted? One solution would be to unanimously and immediately abandon the Lisbon Treaty and propose an urgent preparation of a constitution based upon a pillar of direct (possibly IT based technology) and subject to a simultaneous pan-EU referendum. Each day that passes with yet more dodgy ploys appearing to get the Lisbon Treaty approved costs ever more in the reputation and authority of the EU's present political leaders, particularly those of the present rotating President and his Commission counterpart.

Declan Ganley of Libertas on a 25 page EU Constitution

The link to the full presentation in pdf format is here. The need for democratic reform of the EU which this blog, its forerunner and my own novel 'Millennium Blitzkrieg" on pages 129 to 131 (written in the mid to late nineteen-nineties) have tried to promote, in recent years for something along the lines of the Swiss Confederation arrangements, seems echoed in the following section: A 25-page constitution that could be put to all the citizens of Europe for a vote that upfront sets out the aspirations of the European Union that doesn't try to hide things, I believe, is something that the citizens of Europe can buy into and support. I think the citizens of Europe will respond very well to vision, to some ideals being set down, to some objectives being laid out instead of thinking and knowing that there is some hidden agenda. This isn't a conspiracy theory, Giscard D'Estaing boasted to La Monde last summer, when he didn't realize that I was going to have to have a referendum. He said with regard to the Lisbon treaty public opinion will be led to adopt without knowing it. The policies we would never dare present to them directly. All of the earlier proposals will be in the new text, Lisbon, but will be hidden or disguised in some way. Does that sounds like a democrat to you? It doesn't to me. The Belgian Foreign Minister, I think it was, said about the Lisbon treaty, "It is unreadable. It is a success." It's sad. And it's very sad that the word, the phrase "European leadership" is an oxymoron today, when you think about it, in so many respects, that we have a need for mediocrity in Europe, a need for mediocrity, that is fearful, or even contemptuous of its need to draw its legitimacy from the citizens of Europe, and that has to change, because we don't want Euroskepticism to rise from the grave that we put it into. And if they tried to dig up the Lisbon Treaty from the grave that we've just put it into, Euroskepticism will arise with it, and I don’t know how we're going to put it back in its box. We mustn’t do that.

No Intergovernmental Conference on Constitution replacement?

The following is from a report in today's Financial Times, linked here:

Ms Merkel, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, spent the weekend in talks with her Portuguese and Slovenian counterparts – next in line for the hot seat – as well as José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, and Hans-Gert Pottering, European parliament president.

Already the strategy is clear. Ms Merkel wants the June summit to agree all but the finest details of a new treaty to replace the constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005, focusing on modernising EU rules and institutions.

The deal would be done at the first European summit attended by Nicolas Sarkozy, incoming French president, and the last attended by Tony Blair, UK prime minister. Crucially for Ms Merkel, the sceptical Gordon Brown, Mr Blair’s presumed successor, would still be in the wings.

“Sarkozy is the best outcome for Merkel because of speed,” says a Berlin-based diplomat. “He’s committed to agreeing a new treaty quickly and to have it ratified quickly in parliament.”

José Socrates, Portuguese prime minister, told the Financial Times he was “confident” of a positive outcome at the June summit. Although refusing to set out a timetable for the subsequent Intergovernmental Conference under his presidency, he said: “I would prefer it to be done in a rapid way.”

Maybe the new procedures to speed and ease EU administration will simply be agreed within the European Council and implemented without the wider public ever knowing exactlywhat they might be?