Even though I and others predicted as much, the brazen contempt for democracy being displayed by the EU as its leaders and apparatchiks work out exactly how to impose the 'dead parrot' constitution against the declared will of the people is simply staggering. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that the government wants to go ahead with those parts of the treaty for which there is 'cross-party support'. And Tony Blair has insisted that the constitution still offers a 'perfectly sensible' way forward and that parts of it should be salvaged --ie, imposed by stealth. He is thought to be trying to persuade France and Germany to drop their attempt to revive the constitution itself from the dead, in return for an understanding that as much of it as possible will be rammed though without asking the voters.
In the Times, Anthony Browne graphically spells out how the Brussels bureaucracy is already doing just that, and has been doing so ever since the constitution was written in the first place:
'European officials started working on many of the constitution’s innovations as soon as it was written, insisting that they should not wait until it was ratified. In some cases the work has no legal basis and is dubbed preparatory; in others, a special legal basis has been developed [my emphasis] so that policies could be specially implemented even before the constitution is approved.
'The new developments include a European diplomatic service, a European president, a European foreign minister, a European space policy, a European defence agency, the implementation of the new European charter of fundamental rights by a European fundamental rights agency, and the scrapping of the national veto on immigration and asylum. EU officials are already setting up the offices of Europe’s first permanent president, an appointed post established by the constitution to replace the rotating six-month presidency, which is held by Europe’s elected heads of government.“There is an awful lot of work to set it up: the office and all the support teams,” an official said. “We can’t just leave it to the last moment.”
'The EU is forging ahead with a European diplomatic service, officially called an External Action Service, with EU embassies and ambassadors in every country to project EU foreign policy and issue EU visas. The service, which some governments hope will replace national diplomatic services, will answer to the European foreign minister, a post created by the constitution, but to which Javier Solana, the EU’s current head of foreign policy, has already been appointed. Officials have been told by member governments to start laying the groundwork for the European diplomatic service. One official said the work was continuing: “We are in limbo, but we are carrying on. What else can you do right now?” A British government spokesman said, however: “The external action service does not exist. The only thing happening is preparatory work, and it will not come into being without a treaty.”
'The European Defence Agency, established in the constitution to co-ordinate arms production, started operating a year ago, with a British chief executive, Nick Whitney. In order to start before the constitution came into force, EU heads of government agreed a special legal basis for it in 2004 under existing treaties. A spokeswoman said: “We carry on, we already have a legal basis. It doesn’t affect us. If the constitution is ratified, it will just re establish our legal basis.” The constitution gives the EU its first space policy, and officials met in Luxembourg yesterday to agree how to fully implement it by the end of the year. A Commission spokesman said: “The Commission is involved, but we are not making a new Common Agricultural Policy, it is different.” Although the constitution abolishes the national veto on immigration and asylum, national governments agreed last December that the issue was so urgent that they should implement it before the constitution was approved.The constitution gives legal force for the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, but the European Commission has said that it will implement it across all EU legislation.'
Who can be surprised? The whole purpose of the EU is to ride roughshod over democracy and replace it by an unaccountable bureaucratic entity which replaces the nation state and governs the people on the basis that only a select nomenklatura possesses the necessary vision for the future. Jean Monnet, the machiavellian genius who masterminded the European dream,was explicit that this project would abolish the sovereignty of nations for precisely that purpose.
It is not enough to resist the EU constitution. Britain has to leave the EU. The EU is the front line of attack upon democracy and the nation state. The obdurate refusal to face up to this blindingly obvious fact is the single most important reason why the Conservative party is in the process of marginalising itself out of existence -- and why British democracy itself is currently sliding off the cliff.
