Article 133 - The Elephant in the Living Room of the Nice II Debate

. . . or How I Learned to Stop Worrying Love the GATS.'

Some IMC contributors paid a visit to one of Fine Gael's forums on the Nice Treaty at which Peter Sutherland - in reply to an IMC question about the complexities of Article 133 of the Treaty - gave a very honest answer.
"He kindly confirmed that the General Agreement on Trade and Services can be ratified post-Nice without ever being debated in, much less subject to the approval of, a National or European parliament or any other form of democratic institution."
In the course of his answer he mentioned three groups - the EU Commission, The Council of Ministers and the Article 133 Committee as being the groups with the combined power to sign the EU as a whole up to GATS. When did anyone ever vote for one of these groups? They are all appointees rather than elected representatives. And who are the 133 Committee anyway? Try Google. You will get more info from a simple search about this shadowy group than the EU will ever give you.
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