tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post3773455166116078835..comments2023-09-28T12:28:57.598+03:00Comments on Grahnlaw: On publishing the Lisbon TreatyRalf Grahn http://www.blogger.com/profile/02156293782163802007noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post-85843617075664075042008-02-09T14:18:00.000+02:002008-02-09T14:18:00.000+02:00Martin, the obstruction of France you mention seem...Martin, the obstruction of France you mention seems to be directed against the internal market including competition policy, i.e. against agreed and evolving EC (EU) rules. <BR/><BR/>Actual practice by "Brussels" in other areas can feel both archaic and intrusive. I imagine that part of the Eurosceptisism in the Nordic countries finds its explanation here, since people - right or wrong - believe that our societies are fairly developed. <BR/><BR/>But in spite of less than ideal workings, I think that there are strong strategic reasons for improved common European structures to tackle challenges concerning our security and prosperity.Ralf Grahn https://www.blogger.com/profile/02156293782163802007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post-79350404188691772102008-02-08T17:53:00.000+02:002008-02-08T17:53:00.000+02:00Actions speak louder than words.The EU and its for...Actions speak louder than words.<BR/><BR/>The EU and its forerunners has ever acted the bullying brute, destroying the original EFTA (to which your country was associated)through unsavoury trade discrimination, that being just the start from a UK point of view.<BR/><BR/>The absence of multi-lingual treaty versions seems minor in the face of all the other evidence of the true nature of this non-democratic and clearly corrupt abomination.<BR/><BR/>I live in France where my state health cover has been arbitrarily and retroactively withdrawn, yet my elder sister who moved here years before the Treaty of Rome has never encountered problems with the French authorities. Such illegal actions would not be undertaken between equal sovereign nations. It is the EU that encourages such highhandedness and illegality.<BR/><BR/>On the day France has passed the dreadful Lisbon Treaty in their Parliament they require that any buyer for Societe Generale must be French, does that accord with EU legislation or respect for that law? It is all a sham!<BR/><BR/>Britain is destroyed, no real manafacturing, no proper jobs, most public utilities and food firms sold out to German and French enterprises and a growing economic crisis. Not all the fault of the EU I grant, but the disconnection and self-serving of our inept parliamentarians stems from Brussels.<BR/><BR/>Soon it will be the turn of France and Finland and all the other countries, the inefficient and corrupt EU can only now feed upon itself.<BR/><BR/>Lack of a coherent treaty is no accident, believe me, how could it possibly be?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post-60927128620974296032008-02-08T16:50:00.000+02:002008-02-08T16:50:00.000+02:00Alfred, we seem to share some hopes and fears. I d...Alfred, we seem to share some hopes and fears. <BR/><BR/>I don't think that the development of EU level democracy will necessarily be swift or easy, and I rather think that I won't like the substance of every law passed or decision made even if the system would be democratically legitimate. <BR/><BR/>Still, I believe that the security and prosperity of EU citizens would, on the whole, be served by a Union which was democratic, effective and solidary.Ralf Grahn https://www.blogger.com/profile/02156293782163802007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post-87837518455450981592008-02-08T12:58:00.000+02:002008-02-08T12:58:00.000+02:00I hope that you can prove me wrong. That is a genu...I hope that you can prove me wrong. That is a genuine hope, but I feel this Brussels Government is beyond reform. Maybe there will be some big shake up that will force it to address the democratic deficit.Alfred the Ordinaryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02806612975119244680noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post-26974656511381246952008-02-08T11:37:00.000+02:002008-02-08T11:37:00.000+02:00Alfred, I respect your bleak view, although I don'...Alfred, I respect your bleak view, although I don't share it. <BR/><BR/>I think that democratic reform was a slow and frustrating process at the local and the national level, and that introducing democratic rule at the EU level requires both energy and patience.Ralf Grahn https://www.blogger.com/profile/02156293782163802007noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6406430766424642773.post-19318946096406168412008-02-08T08:07:00.000+02:002008-02-08T08:07:00.000+02:00"I accept that our political system is based on re...<I><B>"I accept that our political system is based on representative democracy entailing accountability of the elected, and the right of the voters to change government."</I></B><BR/><BR/>I just wish that that was true of the Brussels Government. My experience of the Brussels Parliament is that, in practice, it has very little real power, and is more of an assembly than a Parliament, containing no real opposition. It is a sop to democracy. The real power is wielded by The Commission, which is not elected and suffers from a severe democratic deficit. Where are the checks and balances? Where is the <B>effective</B> scrutiny of the budget? Where is the <B>effective</B> scrutiny of the various pressure groups that seem to hold so much sway over The Commission?<BR/><BR/>I applaud your upbeat view of the Brussels Government, but my view is based on many years of experiencing it at work in the UK. Several UK Prime Ministers have tried to bring it back into some democratic form and have failed miserably. My view is that it is beyond reform. <BR/><BR/>I would love to see it become a representative body of European States, working together on an intergovernmental basis, but the federal nature and covert and overt ambitions of those holding the power make it unreformable, and contain the seeds of its own destruction. I understand the federalist worry about nation states, but world experience suggests that only those bound together by a common bond can work closely together for the common good. There is too much separating the differing views and cultures of European nations to bring them together successfully in a federation, as yet, and I don't see this changing fast. Just my bleak view of where we stand.Alfred the Ordinaryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02806612975119244680noreply@blogger.com