The Wholesome Photo of the Month Thu May 09, 2024 11:01 | Anti-Empire
In 3 War Years Russia Will Have Spent $3... Thu May 09, 2024 02:17 | Anti-Empire
UK Sending Missiles to Be Fired Into Rus... Tue May 07, 2024 14:17 | Marko Marjanović
US Gives Weapons to Taiwan for Free, The... Fri May 03, 2024 03:55 | Anti-Empire
Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović Anti-Empire >>
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Julian Assange is finally free ! Tue Jun 25, 2024 21:11 | indy
Stand With Palestine: Workplace Day of Action on Naksa Day Thu May 30, 2024 21:55 | indy
It is Chemtrails Month and Time to Visit this Topic Thu May 30, 2024 00:01 | indy
Hamburg 14.05. "Rote" Flora Reoccupied By Internationalists Wed May 15, 2024 15:49 | Internationalist left
Eddie Hobbs Breaks the Silence Exposing the Hidden Agenda Behind the WHO Treaty Sat May 11, 2024 22:41 | indy Human Rights in Ireland >>
News Round-Up Wed Jul 31, 2024 01:30 | Richard Eldred A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Biden Proposes Sweeping Supreme Court Reforms as He Attacks ?Extreme? Judges Tue Jul 30, 2024 19:00 | Will Jones Joe Biden has proposed sweeping reforms to the U.S. Supreme Court accusing it of making "dangerous and extreme decisions" and losing the public?s trust.
The post Biden Proposes Sweeping Supreme Court Reforms as He Attacks “Extreme” Judges appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Reeves Scraps Winter Fuel Payments for 10 Million Pensioners to Fund Public Sector Wage Rise Tue Jul 30, 2024 17:00 | Will Jones Rachel Reeves is to scrap winter fuel payments for 10 million pensioners and ditch a cap on social care costs to fund a public sector wage rise, it has been announced.
The post Reeves Scraps Winter Fuel Payments for 10 Million Pensioners to Fund Public Sector Wage Rise appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
A Summary of Why the Czech Republic Vaccine Data are So Devastating to the ?Safe and Effective? Narr... Tue Jul 30, 2024 15:00 | Will Jones The Czech Republic record-level vaccine data are devastating to the "safe and effective" narrative, says Steve Kirsch, as he provides a new overview that explains why.
The post A Summary of Why the Czech Republic Vaccine Data are So Devastating to the “Safe and Effective” Narrative appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Keir Starmer?s Anti-Israel Policies Are Now No Different to Jeremy Corbyn?s Tue Jul 30, 2024 13:00 | Will Jones Unlike Jeremy Corbyn, Keir Starmer has never described Hezbollah as his friends. But other than that, when it comes to Israel there is now little of consequence to differentiate them, says Stephen Pollard.
The post Keir Starmer’s Anti-Israel Policies Are Now No Different to Jeremy Corbyn’s appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Netanyahu soon to appear before the US Congress? It will be decisive for the suc... Thu Jul 04, 2024 04:44 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°93 Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:49 | en
Will Israel succeed in attacking Lebanon and pushing the United States to nuke I... Fri Jun 28, 2024 14:40 | en
Will Netanyahu launch tactical nuclear bombs (sic) against Hezbollah, with US su... Thu Jun 27, 2024 12:09 | en
Will Israel provoke a cataclysm?, by Thierry Meyssan Tue Jun 25, 2024 06:59 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern turns Ireland into Germany's pliant instrument for browbeating the Poles
international |
eu |
opinion/analysis
Monday January 26, 2004 21:00 by Anthony Coughlan
Statement from the National Platform
. At Davos last weekend Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said: "If people just
stick totally with Nice and don't move at all, you can't do that because
it's not going to be satisfactory to Germany. There's a fair amount of
sympathy for the German position because they are a large country, they are
a big part of the paymaster. We need to look very helpfully at the German
position. I have to try and get movement from those who need to move and at
the same time not try to put it in a way that forces them beyond a position
they can explain to their own people and their own parliaments."
- Irish Times, Monday 26 January 2004)
It is shameful that Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern should be siding with the
EU's largest country, Germany, as his remarks at Davos indicate, and
implicitly threatening Poland if it does not agree to adopt the
population-based voting system for EU law-making that is desired by Germany
and France.
It is brazen as well as shameful coming from the Taoiseach who pushed
through the Nice Treaty in the repeat referendum he held in Ireland in 2002
by saying that the voting system agreed at Nice was essential for EU
enlargement,and was the best system for law-making in an enlarged EU.
If the EU were a single State for a European "super-nation", in which
Ireland, Poland and other member states were provinces, the
population-based voting system demanded by Germany and France for an EU
Constitution would make sense, for Germany's 85 million people would
entitle it to greatest influence.
Inside a federated EU State Germany could look forward to being joined in
due time by Turkey, with its 100 million population, whose admission to the
EU Germany champions. In the meantime Germany and France between them have
nearly 40% of the population of an enlarged EU. That would enable them to
block whatever EU laws they do not want and, with some allies, to push
through whatever EU measures they do want.
If the EU is not to be one State, but a partnership or alliance of
constitutionally equal States, then it is proper that Poland and Spain
should have similar voting weight to Germany - indeed that smaller
countries than either of them should have that too.
The population-based system for making EU laws that is proposed in the
draft EU Constitution Taoiseach Ahern is striving to bring into being -
i.e. a 60% population headcount - would turn the existing river of EU
legislation into a flood. It would greatly increase the volume of
legislation coming from Brussels, which is why the EU Commission and
Parliament desire it, for their power derives from their role in EU
law-making.
National parliaments would become little more than county councils under
the proposed EU Constitution. Citizens would have no control over what was
happening politically. Their law-makers and rulers would no longer be
accountable to them. Their national Constitutions would be wholly
subordinate to the EU Constitution. The EU would become an international
actor in its own right for the first time, separate from and superior to
its Member States, for it would acquire the legal personality and
independent corporate existence that it does not have at present.
What a dishonourable political condition Messrs Ahern, Cowen and their
fellow enthusiasts for ever-further EU integration have brought their
country to, considering its historical traditions of national independence
and democracy:-
That the Irish Government should be reduced to a pliant instrument of the
former imperial powers of Europe as they seek to foist a Constitution for
an EU State on the peoples and national democracies of our continent - so
that Irish Ministers may personally be able to enjoy the perquisites of a
minor role in running such an EU Superstate themselves, while presiding
over an emasculated parliament and an effectively disenfranchised
citizenry.
Anthony Coughlan
Secretary
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (3 of 3)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3"Citizens would have no control over what was happening politically. Their law-makers and rulers would no longer be accountable to them."
Yeah, as if we do now - pull the other one. I don't remember voting for neo-liberalism, corruption, the catholic church's control of our schools and hospitals, the government's support for the invasion of Iraq and pretty much everything else that has ever been done by our governemnt.
"Their national Constitutions would be wholly
subordinate to the EU Constitution."
Our constitution is 'aspirational' anyway isn't it, so it doesn't make that much of a difference!
By the way Anthony, how's Justin 'Fash' Barrett doing nowadays. I'm surprised that he hasn't co-signed this with you. Or have the catholic fascists got enough out of you already?
what? do I hear you say You didn't vote for a FFer or
PDer?
Not a chance. Nobody wants them in.