Swedish legal council says Lisbon Treaty is the same as EU Constitution
24 June 2008
The Swedish Council on Legislation (Lagrådet) has in a legal opinion concluded that the Lisbon Treaty is “essentially equivalent to the EU Constitution”. The Council is the legal expert body responsible for evaluating the compatibility between legislative proposals and the Swedish Constitution. It was commissioned by the government to decide the most appropriate way to ratify the Lisbon Treaty, which could have involved a referendum. By simply referring to the opinion it gave in 2005 on the EU Constitution, the Council said the Lisbon Treaty can be ratified without special procedures.
In the opinion, the Council also states that the Lisbon Treaty transfers further competencies to the EU.
David Cameron has threatened to oust Conservative MEPs who refuse to publish details of their expenses claims, saying that all party representatives should adhere to “practices that will command public respect”.
French
According to Le Monde, French Europe Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet told a meeting in
Following Gordon Brown’s statement to the Commons yesterday on the European Council, Conservative leader David Cameron said: "You could have done the difficult thing and declared the treaty dead or done the easy thing and joined others in starting the process of bullying
Brown said the Conservatives were becoming "increasingly isolated" with their "perverse view" on
Brown refused to say whether he agreed with the notion, advanced by Nicholas Sarkozy, that further EU enlargement would be impossible without the Lisbon Treaty. The Prime Minister said it was "generally recognised" the Treaty contained provisions "which make it very difficult for the EU to move ahead with 27 members".
Andrew Gimson of the Telegraph notes in his Commons sketch, “Listening to Mr Brown trying to explain the Government's European policy is a bit like listening to a teenager who has been given a drum kit and has no idea how to play it. The Prime Minister treats us to practice sessions in which he bangs away as fast and loud as he can in a vain attempt to try to hide the fact that he has no sense of rhythm.”
Quentin Letts of the Mail and Simon Carr of the Independent write their sketches on the appearance of the EU Commission Vice President Margot Wallstrom before the Commons European Scrutiny Committee yesterday. Conservative MP David Heathcoat-Amory asked her: “Given that you're in charge of communication, what do you think the Irish voters are trying to communicate to you?” Letts notes that Wallstrom did not find the question amusing.
Labour MP Lindsay Hoyle told Wallstrom, "A yes in
Both writers note that the head of the EU Commission in the
FT Independent Carr Telegraph Gimson Le Monde FT Brussels blog Mail Letts BBC
Habermas: EU drifting towards “semi-authoritarian” government after Irish no
German sociologist Jurgen Habermas argues in Spiegel that the search amongst EU governments for a “technical solution” to the Irish no vote is “little more than unadulterated cynicism on the part of the decision makers, especially given their protestations of respect for the electorate. It is also wind in the sails of those actively wondering whether semi-authoritarian forms of pseudo-democracy practiced elsewhere are perhaps more effective after all… European governments have callously demonstrated that they alone are shaping
“The failed referendums are a signal that the elitist mode of European unification is, thanks to its own success, reaching its limits. These limits can only be surmounted if the pro-European elites stop excusing themselves from the principle of representation and shed their fears of contact with the electorate.”
He concludes that national referenda on the question of further EU integration should be held across Europe on the same day, and that this would allow people in different member states to decide on how far they want to centralise power in Europe.
EU ministers agree on pesticides directive despite fears of farm yield drop
EU agriculture ministers reached a political agreement on a new directive restricting pesticide use. The UK is said to have been strongly opposed to the agreement, amidst fears that tighter regulation of pesticides will mean reduced crop yields and even higher food prices.
The
The French Senate has suppressed a proposal for a mandatory referendum on Turkish accession.
The Conservatives are considering a proposal to shift
The EU has approved new sanctions against
The Commission yesterday launched a voluntary online registry for lobbyists in
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