Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty proclaiming, “the Czech Republic will cease to be a sovereign state.” He’s right. The Lisbon Treaty contains the building blocks of a United States of Europe and will shift power from the member states of the EU to Brussels in critical areas of policymaking, including defense, security, and energy–areas in which the United States finds more traction on a bilateral basis. The treaty is a blueprint for restricting the sovereign right of EU member states to determine their own foreign policies, and above all, the treaty underscores the EU’s ambitions to become a global power and challenge American leadership on the world stage.
It contains all the essential components of an EU superstate including a President, a Foreign Minister, a single legal personality, a diplomatic corps and a public prosecutor. Majority voting replaces unanimity voting in at least 40 new areas, including foreign policy, immigration, energy, humanitarian aid, sport and investment.
The Treaty states that henceforth, “Before undertaking any action on the international scene or entering into any commitment which could affect the Union’s interests, each Member State shall consult the others within the European Council or the Council.” Members will now subject their foreign policies to the judgment and wisdom of an EU body over which their peoples have no democratic controls. This is worse than liberal idealism; it is simply anti-democratic.
The EU has connived, bullied and finagled to bring the re-birthed European Constitution into force, despite being rejected in referenda by France, Holland and Ireland. If referenda were held across EU member states (as was favored by public opinion right across Europe), it would undoubtedly have been rejected several more times. Ireland’s EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy went as far as claiming that up to 95% of EU member states would have voted No to Lisbon if they’d been asked.
Under Lisbon, the EU will have a self-aggrandizing mechanism where it can accrue further powers without explicitly seeking national consent. Yesterday was a sad day for democracy and liberty and a sad day for Europe.