EU waits with bated breath for Irish vote result

[saltwn]

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European Union members will learn Friday afternoon whether Irish voters have shot down or supported their latest attempt to create a new governing treaty.
All EU member nations must approve the treaty for it to take effect, and Ireland is the only country to put the treaty to a popular vote. In other countries, legislators make the decision.
The Lisbon Treaty, as it is formally known, would create an EU president and foreign minister, and would slim down the EU Commission from 27 to 18 members, with rotating membership, to speed up the commission's work.

The treaty would also give national parliaments veto power over proposed changes and would assign voting weight to EU member countries.

Ireland's constitution requires that its citizens be given the chance to vote on anything affecting the Irish constitution, which in this case is the EU treaty.

It means Ireland's 3 million voters will decide on a document representing the 490 million people in the European Union.

After voters in the Netherlands and France rejected a previous EU constitution in 2005, no other EU country dared to put such matters to their voters, instead pushing it through their national parliaments. Dutch and French voters have no direct say on the current treaty.

Why was this EU marketed by governments as the greatest thing since sliced bread? And why do amendments not get a general vote everywhere? Maybe our international friends can help me comprehend this.

Bully for Ireland. At least the people get to decide.

[cnredd]

Originally Posted by saltwn

Why was this EU marketed by governments as the greatest thing since sliced bread? And why do amendments not get a general vote everywhere? Maybe our international friends can help me comprehend this.

Bully for Ireland. At least the people get to decide.

The luck of the Irish!...

Irish voters veto EU treaty

It took years to negotiate, weighs in at 260 pages, is virtually unreadable — and now could be a dead letter.

Irish voters vetoed a painstakingly drafted treaty Friday that had been designed to streamline the European Union. Politicians from all of Ireland's major parties worked hard to sell the complex, deeply technical document to a confused and suspicious public.

Only Ireland put the treaty before the voters at all. The other 26 members are ratifying it through their parliaments, in part fearful of what happened to its predecessor, an even bigger, more ambitious constitution that French and Dutch voters torpedoed in 2005.

To become law, the treaty must be unanimously approved by all 27 EU nations. But Ireland's constitution requires EU treaties be put to a vote — a risky policy for the EU, whose powerful commissioners are not popularly elected and seem distant from the ordinary European.

The overwhelming majority of Ireland's politicians supported the Treaty of Lisbon, named after the city where the charter was signed by all member governments in December 2007. But they found it impossible to sell.

"If I was ever in charge of producing another treaty, I would say strongly to everyone at the table: Would you put something into it that's a big-ticket item that you can actually sell to people? Because this was full of technical detail," said Mary Hanafin, a government minister charged with drumming up support.

Her boss, Prime Minister Brian Cowen, faces certain embarrassment and possible isolation at an EU summit next week.

This is the second time that Ireland has voted against an EU treaty. The last time, in 2001, Ireland negotiated with EU partners to produce an appendix emphasizing Ireland's independence and staged a vote a year later, this time achieving a "yes" majority.

Such diplomatic maneuverings have fueled voter resentment.

"What part of `no' do they not understand?" asked Declan Ganley, leader of an anti-treaty pressure group, Libertas.

Looks like Europe gets to stay 90% socialist instead of the 98% the politicians wanted...

[saltwn]

Originally Posted by cnredd

The luck of the Irish!...

Irish voters veto EU treaty

Looks like Europe gets to stay 90% socialist instead of the 98% the politicians wanted...

Here-here! (hear-hear?)

[mlurp]

Its a grand day for the Irish... Europe better wake up or we need to get the hell out of there. NATO can do without us and the money can be used her eat home.
You do know the Irish voted it down, just making sure.
But the neo cons that run our govt. won't wise up.

[saltwn]

Update...http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/bu...html?th&emc=th

FRANKFURT — Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty has plunged Europe into a familiar bout of hand-wringing about the future of its grand experiment in political and economic integration.

But the angst has not spilled into the currency markets, where the euro — perhaps the most tangible symbol of European unity — rose against the dollar Monday, the first full day of trading since the results of the Irish vote were announced.
That is a marked change from three years ago, when the rejection of a proposed European constitution by France and the Netherlands deeply rattled the euro. At that time, some experts questioned whether the currency could survive without a more unified Europe.

Few people are saying that today, a testimony not only to the resilience of the euro but also to a widening belief that the European monetary union can function without an accompanying political union.

“Any poll in Ireland would show massive support for the euro, but not for political integration,” said Philip R. Lane, professor of international macroeconomics at Trinity College in Dublin. “The question is, do you need political integration for a functioning monetary union?”

more of this story...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/bu...html?th&emc=th

So the world has entered a new age, where coinage isn't necessarily sanctioned by a monarch or representative government. I can't predict the future, but this gives me a funny feeling around the back of my neck...

[mlurp]

Seems I have the same thoughts saltwn. Bible studies predict stuff like this. That new age is what is called the NWO., right?