On the barricades for the Reform Treaty ! - commentaires

On the barricades for the Reform Treaty !

The talking points you list are fairly interesting, but unseless in debate if you do not provide a clear link or reference to the treaty part which enunciates each of them.

The treaty's form is a maddeningly complex, cross-referenced lawyer's paradise, and it makes it easy for opponents to sell a blanket rejection, since it is assumed that nobody can really get inside the text.

May I suggest you elaborate on these talking points with the provision of suitable references.

On the barricades for the Reform Treaty !

« The degree of Euro-pessimism would be far more destructive than the one we have suffered since the French and Dutch referenda in 2005 »

Although I welcome the few important improvements that this Reform Treaty would bring about, I'm afraid I don't fully agree : It seems to me that the current EU method is already something of the past, and that we have gone back to a smaller, tighter West European Union structured alongside the Franco-German axis.

I am appalled at hearing a so-called Europhile like M.Joseph Daul say that the European People's Party supports the Reform Treaty because it will not lead to the building of a 'European superstate' (a phrase which means nothing, 'European state' would make much more sense). We can carry on with a weak, watered-down EU but simply as a secondary international organisation, not as a main European structure. The main structure must be the hard core of the EU, even if - unfortunately - it is quite smaller than the current European Union.

On the barricades for the Reform Treaty !

Yes indeed, it is very true that the issue divided the federalist movement in the 1950s, but I do not believe that they really acted against the new Treaty, as was cautiously suggested to do right after the Presidency conclusions were made public back in June. Furthermore, I strongly believe that not acting in favour of the Reform Treaty equals acting against it, considering that we would be giving free play to anti-European feelings to gain ground without providing any counterbalance. If JEF as the European vanguard does not even support the Reform Treaty with all its energy, what reasons would others still have left to stand up for the EU.

And even regardless of the question whether you prefer the pragmatic gradual option à la Spaak & Monnet or the utopian all-in-one option à la Spinelli, it would be very sad when federalists stay apathetic towards the development of the EU and don't do anything to grab this occasion to go explaining the (reformed) EU to the citizen.

On the barricades for the Reform Treaty !

I cannot agree more with Philippe. The lofty, disdaining criticism made of the Reform and Harmonisation Treaty by certain members of certain continental JEF - Sections frightens me.

This treaty, while it has its shortcomings, is vital for the functionning of the EU, and more importantly, we cannot afford for it to fail. That setback would sweep away all of the dynamics painstakingly engaged in the 80's and 90's since the SEA, and would bring us back to the stagnation of the 60's and 70's, to the empty chair policy (imagine Poland and the UK not attending council meetings ?). And while during the 60's and 70's, the ECJ did the work where the governments did not, it will not be able to do anything now. The second and third pillars are still out of its reach, and the Member-States do not have the same naiveté that they had back then, and know exactly what to expect from the ECJ.

So we cannot afford the RT to fail. So we need to do all we can for it to be ratified ASAP. Whining and whingeing about its shortcomings and the sherpa method will not advance any of this. It is already creating problems here in the UK, with Eurosceptics seizing the comments to their advantage to campaign against the RT (The Guardian, Comments&Debate, Thursday October 11).

Regardless of how frustrating it is not to be able to battle for Europe in the open, we need to avoid a referendum in the UK at all costs. And federalists on the other side of the channel do not seem to understand that all the criticism they make of the RT gives the Daily mail and the Sun more to chew on to call for a referendum.

We need to know what we really want : complete stagnation or a first step towards another treaty in less than a decade. And then we need to act accordingly.

On the barricades for the Reform Treaty !

“Can you imagine genuine federalists acting against the Rome Treaties 50 years ago, just because they had not been established in a participative democratic process ??”

=> actually I can because it is precisely what happened : a significant part of the federalist movement at the time was opposed or reluctant towards the communities.