Posts Tagged ‘democracy’

What Declan Ganley is not addressing

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Over the weekend, I looked back on the points Declan Ganley made at the launch of Libertas’s campaign two weeks ago.

As I watched this, I found that nearly every point he made could be disputed, if not refuted. Below is a critical analysis of his case.

He begins by stating that this is the same European Constitution that the French and the Dutch rejected, and that we rejected last year, ignoring the key symbolic changes made to the Constitutional text to remove the statelike trappings which were of such concern, and in the Irish case, it ignores the European Council of December 2008 to agreement to keep our Commissioner and the June 2009 agreement with the legally-binding guarantees.

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Posted in Euroskeptics | 10 Comments »

Burke and European Reform

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Edmund Burke


In a previous blog, I looked at the improvements in the democratic character of the European Union which the Lisbon Treaty will introduce. Yet this week, we heard Declan Ganley again decrying the lack of democracy in the EU, ignoring these changes. He talks of the need for a 25-page constitutional document, overturning 52 years of negotiation by Treaty. This rejection of piecemeal change in favour of a fundamental overhaul deserves analysis in itself.

His 25-page document would turn the EU on an entirely new path, with very little relation in its institutions and structure to what exists at present. He expects us to ignore the 7 years of work which included a convention with parties across Europe and across the political spectrum, in government and in opposition, as well as contributions from civil society.

To recap on the changes Lisbon will introduce to make the workings more open and democratic: (more…)

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Posted in Reforms | 1 Comment »

Citizens Initiative

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Wrongly or rightly, many often point to the EU’s lack of or inability to make a connection with citizens across Europe.

The Lisbon Treaty has a unique and exciting way of getting around this problem – the citizens initiative. This compliments the citizens existing rights to address the parliament by petitioning the petitions committee, by allowing citizens to petition the commission.

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Posted in Social Policy | 1 Comment »

Worried about the democratic deficit? Vote Yes

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

We hear a lot from those on the No side at every European referendum about the problem of the democratic deficit, meaning that decisions are made without reference to the people and without a sense of accountability. This is true to a certain extent in all democracies with policy formulated to a large extent by the permanent government of civil servants.

But they have a point. Since 1957, as it grew from six to 27 countries, it is unsurprising that this has become a concern. So the Lisbon Treaty addresses this.

Even at the moment nothing from the EU becomes law without the approval of those who are accountable to the people. The Commission, whose members are appointed by the governments, proposes legislation. The Parliament, elected every five years, reviews legislation. Then the Council of Ministers, made up of the ministers across the EU, finally agree that a provision can be made law. For example, if the Council is discussing the environment, John Gormley is there with other environment ministers.

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Posted in Reforms | 9 Comments »