EU President: EU is the new Soviet Union

[fmc83]

bdbdbd said:

SamuelRSmith said:

bdbdbd said:
Yes. And even more if (when) the Lisbon treaty gets approval.

 Well, the Lisbon treaty brings in Intiatives, which makes the EU more democratic (basically, if one million people get behind an idea they have to force the EC and EP to look into it). It will also fully include each nations' parliament officially into the constitution.

The charter on human rights will also give the Convention of Human Rights some legal strength.

Plus many other things that improve democracy across the board.

tbh, I get a little fed up with all this euro-skeptism bullshit. Especially those that say "I'm fed up with all the decisions made in Brussels". News flash: Brussels holds the European Commission, the Civil Servants, essentially, they just do all of the donkey work that they receive from the Council of Ministers - which, of course, includes the Governments from all of the nations. (This wasn't aimed at you, bdbdbd, but mainly at the British Euroskeptics).

There are some good things in the Lisbon treaty, but it changes the whole nature of EU completely. Currently EU is a bunch of contracts between a number of countries, after Lisbon treaty it's one country with number of states, in similar fashion with Germany, USA, Russia and China. The need for EU "to become more democratic" comes from the new EU countries (namely Poland) that holds the same power as France, UK or Italy and can in reality take down things in EU parlament (and Turkey sometime in the future, that's going to pass Germany in population).
Lisbon treaty would take EU as more democratic only in the scheme of Lisbon treaty. Considering the current scheme, more democratic direction would be each country to have equal number of votes in the parlament. The current system is designed in a way that once something fits for "everyone", it's legit (and on top of that, it needs approval in each countrys parlament in order to take effect in the country in question) and after Lisbon treaty, something would be legit after the majority approves it (without the need of approval in individual countries parlaments).
Basically the idea is to lock the power to (namely) Germany, France, UK and Italy.

On top of that, the Lisbon treaty also grants death sentences for political reasons (not for murderers or rapists) and rioting/protests. This could be good thing to prevent what have happened in France and maybe get Malmö back in track, but it also prevents nationality uprising and justifies the use of military force to prevent someone get out of EU.

 

Great to have this kind of deep discussion here! The main question is what do we really want the EU to become? A new superpower or just a bigger trade arrangement. I tend to the superpower: why not try to build a new United States of Europe, with different nations united to form something bigger and better without stupid need for patriotism. The road to walk is long, but I reckon when we get there, it's all worth it. And if you call this socialist - count me in.