European Union
On the one hand, the European Union suspended Austria when its citizens voted for people it didn’t like. On the other hand, the EU has failed to react to the Rajoy government’s tactics in responding to the Catalonian crisis. This is not to claim that the EU was wrong in each of these cases. It merely shows that the EU is experiencing a serious identity crisis. It simply cannot make up its mind whether it is to:
- (a) become a mere confederation;
- (b) become a federation;
- (c) recast itself as an inter-governmental organisation on the lines of the Council of Europe;
- (d) muddle along as "neither fish nor fowl"; or,
- (e) disappear under the weight of its inherent contradictions.
Take your pick![1]
Contents
Legal Problems of the European Constitution
From the very beginning the construction of an European super-bureaucracy faced legal problems: core agreements like the "economic stability criteria" have been broken frequently and permanently by the majority of member states.
The precursor of the Lisbon Treaty (13 December 2007), the Treaty of Maastricht has been rejected by the citizens' vote of many European countries. After that the European Parliament was set up without questioning the people further. The European Parliament is notoriously weak and has only a veto power over laws passed within a short timeframe. European law overrules national law but the people of the member states are not represented proportionally in the European Parliament. This conflicts with many national constitutions. The Maastricht Treaty has been challenged therefore before the highest courts of Member States as well as the European Court of Justice, among others by German professor of international law Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider.[2]
Of particular concern are the paragraphs dealing with martial law or "emergency situations" and the re-introduction of the death penalty. The contents of the treaties are not discussed in the commercially-controlled media and there is no awareness of the far-reaching consequences in the general public. The contracts are packed with footnotes and references to previous treaties and legal acts, which makes them hard to understand even for insiders of international law. A survey showed that less than 20 percent of German MPs actually read the Lisbon Treaty before giving the go-ahead to their own disempowerment.
Inaction about Gladio
On November 22, 1990 the European Parliament debated Operation Gladio, producing a strongly worded resolution calling for an investigation. However, this was never followed through. Summarising the procedure, Daniele Ganser writes that "The dog barked loudly, but it did not bite. Of the eight actions requested by the EU parliament not one was carried out satisfactorily. Only Belgium, Italy and Switzerland investigated their secret armies with a parliamentary commission, producing a lengthy and detailed public report."[3]
An ambassador to European Union
| Nation state | Start | Description |
|---|---|---|
| United States Ambassador to European Union | 1961 |
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