The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, signed the Lisbon Treaty at 3 p.m. Central European Time today, the last leader of the European Union’s 27 members states to do so
Firstly the bad news:-
By Hilary White
Czech Republic Leader Signs Lisbon – No More Barriers to New European Superstate
PRAGUE, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, signed the Lisbon Treaty at 3 p.m. Central European Time today, the last leader of the European Union’s 27 members states to do so. This removes the last barrier to the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, the document that is said to be effectively identical to the European Constitution that was defeated by public votes in France and the Netherlands in 2005.
Klaus, the eurosceptic leader of the former Soviet bloc country, has warned repeatedly against Lisbon’s encroachments on national sovereignty and democracy, calling the project of a “united Europe” a return to a leftist tyranny. Since the start of the battle over Lisbon, Klaus has warned that ratification of the Treaty would signal the end of his and all European countries as independent sovereign states.
After the Yes vote in last month’s Irish referendum, Klaus’ opposition to Lisbon was the last barrier to the full implementation of the agreement that pro-life advocates have warned will likely result in the loss of the right of countries to pass laws protecting the unborn and elderly from abortion and euthanasia. Pro-life leaders in Ireland warned that under the Treaty the laws of member states will be interpreted not through that state’s courts, but by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that is under no legal obligation to consider any other law besides EU law.
Today the anti-Christian, secularist leanings of the EU’s institutions were illustrated when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that crucifixes must be removed from Italian state schools. In response to a complaint from an Italian woman in Padua, the Strasburg court ruled, “The presence of the crucifix … could easily be interpreted by pupils of all ages as a religious sign and they would feel that they were being educated in a school environment bearing the stamp of a given religion.”
The court ruled that the Italian state is to “refrain from imposing beliefs in premises where individuals were dependent on it.” Campaigners have warned that this type of ruling under Lisbon’s terms would become binding on all member states, ushering in the effective repression in all of Europe of public expressions of Christianity or any other belief that opposes the prevailing official European secularism.
In a 2005 speech, Klaus wondered if the former communist countries were not risking falling into “another blind alley of regulated society, of unproductive welfare state, of brave new world of European social democratism and of empty and artificial Europeanism.”
Klaus’s capitulation was anticipated at last week’s EU summit, when French President Nicholas Sarkozy said, “The Lisbon Treaty will enter into force doubtless as early as December 1.”
This is the most excellent Cranmer’s first thoughts on this:-
Prague Autumn – the fall of the Czech Republic
It is all over.
With the final signature upon the Lisbon Treaty, Europa – the whore that rides the beast – has her constitution at last, after eight years of tortuous posturing, negotiation and renegotiation, irrespective of whether or not the ‘constitutional concept’ has been abandoned.
Prague has a thousand years of proud history behind her: so significant was the city that it was the seat of two Holy Roman Emperors, and thus the capital of the Holy Roman Empire.
But with the stroke of a pen, she is reduced to vassal status within the renascent Holy European Empire, and her sovereignty has been removed. Forty years after the Prague Spring which heralded new life and democracy, President Klaus has signed the document he has long resisted, and we witness a Prague Autumn of dormancy and decay.
Perhaps as early as next week, we will know the identity of our first Emperor of the reunited Europe.
All of which makes it very interesting for David Cameron as he expounds what he actually meant by ‘We will not let matters rest there’.
His Grace will post his thoughts upon that matter tomorrow.
I shall ensure that I put the link on this page, when we get the full thoughts on this matter from Cranmer.
But now for the only silver lining:-
By Hilary White
Blair’s Chances as Euro President Recede as Lisbon Treaty Signed
ROME, November 2, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Now that the last barrier has fallen to implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, reports are increasing that Tony Blair’s chances of getting the top spot in the soon-to-be-constituted super-nation of Europe are fading fast.
After eight years of battling against it, Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the Lisbon Treaty, the last national leader of the EU’s 27 member states to do so. Attention now goes towards filling the new leadership jobs of president and foreign minister of Europe.
Opposition to the former British PM’s bid for the new EU Presidency – which has previously been considered a shoo-in - grew across Europe after an EU summit in Brussels last week, with former supporters in France and Germany giving Blair thumbs down.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that their two centre-right countries, considered the most powerful members of the EU, would work together to propose a candidate.
Open Europe (OE), one of the leading Euro-watch groups, said that the rejection of Blair is the result of a deal between socialist governments and a group of “centre-right” countries. Under this deal, OE says, the left would nominate for the post of EU foreign minister, and the centre-right governments would nominate the president.
Sarkozy was the first European leader to name Blair as a candidate for the presidency in 2007. But OE reports that Jean-David Levitte, Sarkozy’s foreign policy adviser, said this weekend it was unlikely that France would support a presidential candidate from the UK.
Some European papers are speculating that it is the British desire to preserve the country’s parliamentary sovereignty through various ‘opt-outs’ from Lisbon, negotiated by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, that has put the European leaders off a British candidate. Prime Minister Jose Zapetero was quoted by the Times as saying, “I want a real European president who wants to strengthen the union. He has to be in favour of the union and of the common policies.”
Critics of the post say that under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty, the new EU president will have no democratic mandate whatsoever, being appointed by the leaders of the EU in a process that will neither require nor allow any input from the public.
The leader of Britain’s Conservative party, David Cameron, who is likely to become the next Prime Minister and will therefore have a key role in the newly united Europe, has said that Blair would be “unacceptable” to the British people as EU president. But Cameron said his party objects not only to Blair’s appointment, but to the whole notion of a president of the “state of Europe.”
“We think that Europe is supposed to be an association of member states, not a country called Europe,” Cameron told the BBC. Cameron noted the loss of support by the Labour government for reneging on its previous promise of a referendum on Lisbon.
This weekend, however, David Cameron signaled that should his party form the next government, it will not give the public a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty post-ratification as promised.
Cameron’s Treaty promise has been a key component of his party’s rise in popularity after the ruling Labour party refused the referendum. In the run up to the last general election all of Britain’s major political parties promised a plebiscite on Lisbon.
Conservative Home, the blog aggregate site for the Tory party, says that “conversations with a dozen good sources” in the party have confirmed that if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified when the party reaches power next year, the Conservative leadership will say that there will be no attempt to “unratify it” via a referendum. Instead there will be negotiations with the EU to repatriate “key powers from Brussels.”
The Times reports that Cameron will only pledge to create laws prohibiting any British Government to push through any future European treaty without a referendum.
The Observer’s Peter Oborne said that Cameron’s pulling back from what he called his “ironclad” promises on Lisbon is a “cop-out and a betrayal” and said it is “exactly the kind of post-democratic politics which defined, debased, and finally destroyed, the Blair premiership.”
Further Internet Links
If you have stumbled onto this blog and are not a Christian, get yourself a hot drink, pull up a comfy chair and then tuck into the following article written by one of the best in the business:- All Of Grace by Charles Spurgeon
Tags: Politics