Democratic Deficit Deepens at the Conference on the Future of Europe

How the EU institutions refused to Discuss Democracy.

On 7 May 2021 

I wrote the following contribution for the section DEMOCRACY on website of the Conference on the Future of Europe.  

FIRST TIME EVER! Politicians promise to publish 

Europe's Founding Democracy Charter on this site

David Price

07/05/2021 15:31   

Wow!
For the first time our European leaders (Commission, Council, Parliament) promised to publish here the documents showing how Europeans got their democracy. They show how and why Europeans did not fight another war amongst themselves after WW2. Documents on how Europeans should develop their democracy in FIVE INSTITUTIONS with as Guardian Human Rights Court of the Council of Europe were signed 70 years ago, 18 April 1951.
These are the most important documents of modern times.
Astoundingly the five European institutions have NEVER published these vital documents. Politicians refused. Following the request of EurDemocracy.com, now they will be!
1. Full text of Schuman Declaration (including the Schuman Proposal) made on 9 May 1950. It shows how Europeans have avoided WAR for the longest time in more than 2000 years.
2. The Great Charter of the Community signed on 18 April 1951. This is also called the Declaration of Interdependence. It shows how citizens must have FREE CHOICE in treaties and election of the five institutions. Instead treaties such as the present Lisbon Treaty (and its previous version the Constitutional Treaty) were implemented AGAINST the Will of the People as expressed in public opinion polls and referendums. Europe must not develop like the fraudulent 'People's Democracies' of the Soviet bloc. Elitist Politburo imposed decisions from behind closed doors. Treaties say Councils should be OPEN to the public. Treaties ban party membership for Commission.

On 10 April 2022 

I posted the following update of my letter to leaders of the institutions.

Letter sent to French Presidency and Members of European Parliament, Commission Vice President Suica, and Democracy spokesperson.
see full text at
eurDemocracy.substack.com

Dear Conference presidents,
I am a journalist accredited in Brussels and Editor of the Schuman Project.
On 19 April 2021 (the day after the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Paris, founding the European Community) Vice President of the Commission Mme Dubravka Suica, Mme Zacarias of the Portuguese EU presidency and Mr Guy Verhofstadt of the EP held a press conference at the Commission launching the Conference on the Future of Europe.
I asked that the original documents on Democracy agreed and signed by the Founding Fathers be published to facilitate the debate and conference decisions on European democracy.
All three institutions agreed that they would be published for the Conference and analysed.
They still have NOT BEEN PUBLISHED!

Nearly 1000 people said they were following this online

One Comment on this said:

Congratulations Mr David PRICE,

I have followed the EU Conference on the Future of Europe and have never found anything as interesting as your publication.

On 6 May 2022, 

I published the following:

DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT DEEPENS!

Today I asked Commission, Council and EP officials:

WHY have the foundational documents on Democracy, STILL NOT been PUBLISHED, as promised by Commission Vice President Suica, Council President Zacarias, EP Guy Verhofstadt on 19April 2021??

I was refused an answer as I had asked this earlier in the Commission Press Room. (But had not received an explanation!)

I also asked: why has the analysis of democracy not been published, comparing the original Community system to the present 'EU' system as also agreed by institutional leaders a year ago?

A high Commission official said: We are interested in the future not the past.

Conclusion:

The institutions confirm that for them Democracy is a thing of the past!!

 

Questions to UK Attorney General Cox and Brexit Committees

To House of Commons and House of Lords Brexit Committees

Questions to be put to Attorney General Geoffrey Cox.

Please circulate to all committee members:

Serious flaws in the legal procedure for the Brexit Article 50 letter have been pointed out to Parliament in two enclosed Petitions. Action, and legal and constitutional clarification is urgently required. Six copies of the book “Brexit and Britain’s Vision for Europe“, sent to Brexit Secretaries of State and Brexit Committees, deal with the issues in full.
The petitions raise three issues, vital for the prosperous future of the UK and good relations with our European partners.

1. Euratom. No ballot paper was issued, nor prior notification given, nor publication made, nor Government statement in Parliament about leaving Euratom before the vote of 23 June 2016. Nuclear security, energy and medicines should not be compromised by a flawed Brexit concept defying and overstepping any legal authority of the people in the referendum. No assent was given. Whatever HMG thinks, or opinion Parliament later passes, Euratom is a distinct and separate international treaty for 28 Member States in a Community system.

2. European Union only, not EEC. The ballot paper was about leaving “the European Union” not the European Communities. The 1975 Referendum gave a two-thirds majority in favour of staying in the European Community.
The European Union was defined in the subsequent treaties as additions to the European Economic Community, EEC. This included new institutions and bureaucracies. Many times referendums were promised. None materialised. Major changes were introduced against the popular sentiment, especially in the Lisbon Treaty, almost identical with the undemocratic and rejected Constitutional Treaty.
The Euratom and European Coal and Steel Communities were not subsumed in the EU.
Leaving the European Union means leaving EU treaties that have not been ratified by the people in the 1975 referendum. It does not mean leaving the EEC Customs Union, Single Market or nuclear safeguards of Euratom.

3. Referendum required for Treaty validation. The articles modifying the EEC to make it the EU Treaty were rejected in referendums in France, the Netherlands, Ireland. The exact words of article 50 were rejected by referendums when it was called the Constitutional Treaty. They would almost certainly have been rejected in UK had the referendum been carried out at any time before 2016. It was promised by both Labour and Conservatives. They stated such a referendum was necessary to validate it. HMG cannot use referendum article 50 in the unvalidated EU Treaty. It is an abuse and a breach of duty. It is both unsafe and dishonest.
First, a review is needed. Article 50 needs to be paused. The treaty needs ratification by referendum to validate it. So said both governments. HMG is now trying to use this flawed operation to override the non-exit clauses validated by the 1975 referendum. It is unsafe to do so. Both the EEC and Euratom have articles stating that the treaties are “concluded for an unlimited time” (article 240 EEC, 208 Euratom). Why? Because all States and peoples agreed that Open Democracy was the only way for the future of Europe to solve problems. HMG cannot override the people’s voice and due constitutional process without dire consequences.

Petition on Euratom

Petition Article 50 treaty Flaw

UK’s and Europe’s future and prosperity depends on tackling its common responsibilities for the Democratic Deficit. Europe’s history shows that in 1950 its two millennia of wars and killing can be changed into unprecedented peace. This new challenging phase needs to be tackled with the same determination for honesty and good will to all.
Many thanks for your urgent attention to this. I look forward to hear your response.
David Price
Editor, Schuman Project
eurDemocracy

Petition to UK Parliament: Brexit from Euratom and Common Market is illegal

SUCCESS! 

After several attempts to get the Parliament panel (composed of 11 MPs) to accept a petition that exposes the negligence of parliament to follow legal and constitutional rules on Brexit, the petition panel finally agreed to the Euratom petition. This exposes two major flaws in the Brexit process. Both Labour and Conservative governments when in office reneged their correct policy positions for a clear referendum on the EU treaty.

It emphasizes that the British people have a fundamental right to decide on the way Europe is being constructed. Up till now such decisions have been made behind the closed doors of the European Council.

Why the Petition on Euratom is important:
1. In her Article 50 letter to Brussels Prime Minister May specifies that UK will leave Euratom. BUT the idea of leaving Euratom is not on the ballot paper of the Referendum. I have found no Government statement about Euratom before the referendum, nor speech in Parliament, nor any mention of Euratom in the publication they sent to all households. The Lisbon Treaty on the European Union and the Euratom treaty are quite separate in law. Euratom was signed in 1957 and British people voted to remain in it as part of the European Community in 1975. The Lisbon treaty is the last in a series of treaties that modified only one of two treaties signed in 1957 -- the European Economic Community treaty, known also as the Common Market. The EU system is vastly different from the original Community system.

So leaving Euratom needs democratic approval by the people.

2. The second part of the petition is potentially even more important. The petition makes clear that the UK people only voted to leave the European Union. And that this is very different from the European Community and the original European Economic Community treaty. Hence all the additions and amendments that change the democracy of the original Economic Community treaty are declared illegal.
These are the changes that, ever since the 1980s, people have ceaselessly complained about. They give the Community system "a democratic deficit". They include a whole series of closed door committees and bureaucracies. They involve a system that continues the Gaullist abuses of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). This subsidy to French farmers/ voters and others reached to nearly three quarters of the entire European budget. The UK objected. Agriculture represented only 2 or 3 percent of the economy. However despite the cuts to the CAP, the EU leaders found means to keep the budget at the same level of taxation! CAP still takes more than a third of the budget. And they are expecting a great budget increase in the coming years. Why? Where is the means to deal with the future, innovation and science? Why is youth unemployment so high and wages low?

Many thanks for helping start this great debate about democracy in Europe.
It is of historic proportions.

Please feel free to circulate the link below from Parliament. Any British citizen worldwide and people resident in UK may sign up to the Petition.
Click this link to see your petition and start sharing it:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/240327

When it reaches 10,000 the government will respond formally. When it reaches 100,000 signatures it will be debated in Parliament.

Many thanks.

Gutless Politicians and Secrecy are the cause of Brexit and public distrust

Mr David Davis got it wrong. The UK Brexit Secretary of State resigned because, he said, the UK Parliament’s voice in European and global trade policy was “illusory“. UK was being dictated to by “Brussels”. This system was contrary to British democratic interests and tradition. It is fundamentally undemocratic, he said.

He is pointing his finger in the wrong direction. The blame lies nearer to home. The core issue is the lack of democracy in UK. Add to that, lack of political courage. And not only in the UK. Every European capital is to blame in the same way.

What is wrong with European democracy? What is the core problem? When democrats get to Brussels they shut the doors and become anti-Democrats.

Democracy is about open government. Seventy years ago to this month, the French government of Robert Schuman made a proposal that astounded its European neighbours. It also saved Europe from the ravages of further wars and invasion. The powerful Soviet Red Army had not demobilised after WW2. It was set on invasion of a demoralised, divided and disarmed Western Europe.

The French government suggested on 20 July 1948 that Europe create a parliamentary Assembly and a Customs Union. It would create not only democratic solidarity but create the infrastructure for peace and prosperity.

This was the first time in European history that a sovereign government had proposed a European Parliament. (The rare proposals in the past were made by what Schuman called “utopian thinkers,” not practical leaders.) Schuman’s proposal was made at the meeting of Western Union in The Hague by his Foreign Minister, Georges Bidault. The Western European Union or Brussels Pact was also the forerunner of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

So if the Schuman government was first to lay plans on the table for a European democracy, what were its basic principles? He made clear that it must consist of the most open and transparent discussion possible (Pour l’Europe, chapter 3).

He said that true democracy has three characteristics.

1. The objectives at each stage of democratic governance must be set by the people.
2. Then the people must define the means it wishes to use to attain each goal.
3. And thirdly, it must pass the the moral and ethical Litmus Test. It must be at the service of the people and act in agreement and consent with it.

So where did the UK government and the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU go wrong?

Firstly, the UK government did not properly analyse the five institutions of the Community system. It is the most advanced democratic system in world history. This heart of European democracy is enshrined in the Treaties of Paris, 1951 and Rome, 1957. Even then political scientists called it sui generis. It is like nothing else before it.

But if you do not know how the aero-engine of democracy works, it is no use applying spanners to tighten the bolts, strapping additional devices to it, or filling the tank with diesel instead of petrol.

The UK did not reassess or remove the sand and gravel dumped in the Community system by autocratic Gaullists. One of the three deliberate bodies is the Council of Ministers. It is there to represent open democracy of States. Charles de Gaulle tried to use it for his own dictatorial purposes — whether by “empty chair” threats or furtive strong-arm wrestling with the smaller States.

Many politicians, however, liked his idea of deciding about money matters in secret. “Post-Gaullist” politicians preferred “secret democracy”. Shamefully UK was silent. But the founding principles of how the Council of Ministers and the other deliberate institutions should deliberate cannot be buried.

Open debate.

Because corrupt politicians, including but not exclusively the Gaullists, continuously tried to have secret government, others insisted the principle of open debate be written into the so-called Constitutional Treaty, 2004 that later became the Lisbon Treaty, 2007. It says all aspects of the deliberative process — consideration of Commission proposals, debate and formulation of a common Council position — should be OPEN to the public! The Council should act exactly as the Parliament with open committees. It should publish a written record of debates.

It was ignored. It is still ignored today.

“Article 15 TEU 

In order to promote good governance and ensure the participation of civil society, the Union institutions, bodies and agencies shall conduct their work as openly as possible.”

And just to make certain the politicians in the Council of Ministers got the point, the article 15 repeated in its paragraph 2;

“2. The European Parliament shall meet in public, AS SHALL THE COUNCIL, when considering and voting on a draft legislative act.”

The main reasons that the British Parliament has been emasculated of powers of supervision and control are twofold. Firstly the “Democrats” from London acquiesce to the secretive Continental practice where Council debate takes place behind closed doors. Parliamentarians back in London are not able to identify the issues being discussed. For example, what another country is saying on any issue.

Secondly, when they return to London (and the other capitals), ministers do not open up the debate in the national Parliament. That is their duty. That step is essential if governments can be sensitive to the needs and real desires of the electorate.

Instead ministers prefer to make sure that Brussels provide taxpayer money for the national economy. They can then take the glory of initiating the airports, agricultural purchase programmes or other possibly useless systems. That’s how Europe has motorways that go to Nowheresville and airports that have no passengers. That’s how the Gaullists bequeathed he European taxpayer corruptly with Beef Mountains, Wine Lakes or Grain stockpiles. And then sold them off at a massive discount to the Soviet Union, our Cold War enemy!

The first step to resolve the Brexit dilemma is to have open debates in the Council of Ministers and its committees. The debates should be recorded and published like the House of Parliament record, Hansard.

Open, democratic governance is the only way forward out the Brussels/ Brexit logjam.

Quick Brexit is becoming a fading reality

At the press briefing for the 15 December European Council here in Brussels, a “high European official” revealed how little the EU-27 have measured the widespread consequences of Brexit on their timetable.

The rush, rush attitude of Commission President Juncker, European Council President Tusk, EP president Schulz and as articulated also by Guy Verhofstadt is up for a surprise. The treaty of Lisbon calls for a 2 year negotiation. Guy Verhofstadt MEP and the Commission’s Brexit pointman Michel Barnier say this must realistically be reduced to 15 months to allow for preparation and ratification in all 28 States. All the lose ends have to be wrapped up well before the 2019 elections, they all say.
Why?
They don’t want UK to be electing MEPs while it is about to leave the EU under Article 50.
What they haven’t foreseen is clear from the briefing. That is regardless of what happens with the Lisbon E U negotiations, the UK will still be obliged to elect MEPs — not under the Lisbon Treaty but under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, Euratom. (The EU is not the same as the European Community in law!)
The Founding Fathers of Europe were democratic and the Assembly was created by the founding Treaty in 1951. The first was the Coal and Steel Community with an Assembly which required elections by universal suffrage.
There were three Communities. Each treaty had full democracy based on one person one vote. But initially the parliamentarians were delegated by the national parliaments until the politicians provided the single statute for all Europe.
We are still waiting for them to do so.
The institutions of three Communities merged to have a single Parliament which is the present European Parliament. In the Merger Treaty of 1965 they have a single Council and the same Consultative Committees such as the Economic and Social Committee. When MEPs are elected they are elected to be parliamentarians for Euratom and for the EU.
Nuclear matters were responsible to this Assembly and other bodies such as the Consultative Committees which also should be elected. The public is still waiting for elections there too.
The European Union arose from modifying just one of these three Communities, the EEC “Common Market”. This was done by the treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam, Nice and the failed and rejected Constitutional Treaty whose articles were illegally incorporated as the Lisbon treaty.
Euratom remains a separate body and requires in its articles that States elect parliamentarians.
What does this mean for Britons living on the Continent? What does it mean for Britons in the UK? That has to be worked out.
Have the EU27 or the European Council considered the implications of this treaty? The answer is No. And officials said they won’t even be discussing it on Thursday, 14 December. They will leave it until after the negotiation date is set.
What will they find?
That (1) this Community treaty has a “perpetuity” clause like the EEC used to have before it was changed to the Article 50 of Lisbon.
(2) They will also find that, even if they come up with a legal device to overturn the perpetuity clause (which at the very least will require unanimity first, then treaty change and parliamentary ratification by 28 States) they will be faced with a world of highly complex additional negotiation to deal with. That is the common market of nuclear materials and safeguards that will prevent countries like Iran getting hold of it. It adds a new braking action for the fast Brexiteers.
http://www.politico.eu/…/after-brexit-brexatom-nuclear-bre…/
The EU-27 States estimate that it will take a decade or more to negotiate merely the trade aspects. So says UK's Brussels diplomat, Sir Ivan Rogers. That assumes there will be no legal delays by angry citizens and consumers.
Conclusion: Fast Brexit is looking more like Mission Impossible.

USE1 Why a 'Federation of Nation States' is a NONSENSE and a FRAUD!

European Commission President Barroso, in his 'State of the Union' speech to the European Parliament on 12 September 2012 called for a Federation of Nation States. Was he confused or just ill-informed? His proposal was to try to solve the EU's politician-generated woes, both falling trust in politicians and skyrocketing debt mechanisms mortgaging future generations.

On 18 September Mr Barroso repeated this call for a Federation of Nation States to a German audience of his political party, the EPP. We can say that this silly idea of a federation was no slip of the tongue. It is a ploy, a distraction.

I call as witness to my case an eminent lawyer, twice prime minister of France, and its longtime foreign minister. Robert Schuman made a lifetime study of democracy before he proposed Europe's first Community based on supranational principles and universal values. Schuman called such ill-defined, emotional talk of a federation of nation states an illusion.

In his May 1949 Strasbourg speech he called for a supranational union and gave cogent reasons why this great scientific experiment in supranationality must succeed. He cited a thousand year history of such unrealistic ideas of federations and concluded they were all 'a utopia'. This analysis was made in one of the greatest speeches on European unity of the postwar years.

Why is the concept of such a Federation not only a nonsense but also a political fraud? The simple answer is that: No federation in the world has anything similar to to an independent Commission. The suggestion to change the European Community system into a Federation would therefore involve elimination of the European Commission. Mr Barroso's spokesperson assured the press that Mr Barroso is not suggesting that. He is keen, she said, to retain the supranational character of the Commission.

That underlines the FRAUD that the politicians are trying to perpetrate. It is impossible to have a Federation and a SUPRANATIONAL system at the same time. I say this on the highest authority -- that of the initiator of the supranational system for Europe, Robert Schuman. This is how Schuman defined the three terms Confederal, Federal and Supranational. The first two terms follow the definitions well known in international law, in which Schuman was a world-renowned specialist.

No other term (but supranational) is able to express as well the significance of the new idea that it is necessary to explain, in distinguishing it from all the traditional terms of juridical categories. The supranational is situated at an equal distance between, on the one hand, the international individualism of States which consider their national sovereignty as untouchable except for occasional and reversible contractual obligations; on the other side, Federalism of States which submit themselves to a Super-State doted with its own territorial sovereignty.

The supranational institution, such as our Community, represented by the High Authority (or Commission) does not possess the characteristics of a State, but it retains and exercises certain sovereign powers. It is independent as regards the national Governments within the limits of the Treaties; this independence is irreversible as is the transfer of competence of which it is the source.

The Treaty confers on the Community its own function; it does not exercise it as a delegation for the States that adhere to it. The Commission (High Authority) is not responsible to the Governments, but to the institutions of the Community (such as the Assembly and the Court); the Declaration of 9 May 1950 already spoke of these 'means of appeal' against decisions of the High Authority.

The vague concept of Federation of Nation States was raised by a previous Commission President Jacques Delors more than a decade ago. But he warned then of ideas of reducing democracy by pushing for qualified majority voting of politicians 'against the will of the people'. But that is exactly what has happened since then when the politicians chose to ignore the referendums of several Member States who voted soundly against such measures in the Constitutional /Lisbon Treaty. Mr Delors warned then that it would lead to 'big trouble'.

The 'BIG TROUBLE' has arrived with a vengeance. That is because since the time of de Gaulle, politicians refused to have proper elections for the Parliament and the Consultative Committees. And to this day, sixty years later, NO SUCH ELECTIONS HAVE EVER TAKEN PLACE. De Gaulle and many other national politicians were happier cutting deals behind the closed doors of the Council, than organizing the elections required in the treaties.

Democratic control would only hamper their autocratic ways. Democracy is useful, for example, for controlling budgets and overspending. Politicians are nowadays trying to borrow five to seven times the EU's annual budget to prop up the misconceived euro. Meanwhile trust has plummeted to historic low points, not only for politicians, but in the EU and also in the European Central Bank, which is bending the rules to buy government debts and offering to substitute it with 'fresh' inflation-ridden euros from a central printing press.

That mistake was obvious to the experienced Founding Fathers such as Robert Schuman and Paul-Henri Spaak. Both had to deal with problems of monetary stability after WW2. It was why they said that a supranational Community approach, not a federation, was essential. Nowadays few politicians know or it seems want to know how the Community system is supposed to work. It has FIVE democratic institutions.

Some of these same politicians want to reduce that to three main ones Council, Commission and Parliament plus a host of other groups which have nothing to do with a democratic Community system, which are called institutions in the Lisbon Treaty! Thus the Court of Auditors is considered an institution! The Council became 'more equal than the others' and now controls the Parliament by selecting its president, and turning the Commission into a Secretariat and restricting it to buddies having party cards.

In a real Community system the accounts are properly balanced and the money is supervised carefully by the five institutions and there is no need to call some accountants in as a separate 'democratic' body! Having frozen (temporarily) elections in some of the institutions, the politicians of Delors generation created a single currency without the proper democratic competences and checks. Hence the trillion euro manipulations of the ESM and ESFS are discussed and decided in secrecy, far from the public's eyes.

Why do I call the jelly-like Federation of Nation States a FRAUD? Firstly, a federation of nation states means nothing. Some States are Republics and many are monarchies. If Mr Barroso was serious, he would have explained how he was going to be the emperor who would rule over such monarchies as the British Queen, the Belgian King, not to mention the Scandinavians, Spanish and the Grand Duke plus the French, German and other Presidents.

Secondly, Schuman said we should be aware of the danger of politicians who expand the bureaucracy and create a COUNTERFEIT democracy. That is exactly what a Federation of Nations States is. It has no real meaning and cannot be defined in terms of responsibility and competence. It cannot be defined as to how the politicians can be SACKED.

Thirdly, if Mr Barroso were sincere about real democracy he would as representative-guardian of the treaties have reminded the Parliament that they had not once in the sixty year history of the Parliament had an election in conformity with the principle in all the treaties that elections should be under one statute for all Member States. There should not be 27 statutes where each biases the results in favour of the government parties. What a strange coincidence!

Fourthly, the proof that this is a fraud and an attempt at counterfeit democracy is clear from last week's events. On Wednesday 12 September 2012 we had the theatre of the Commission President speaking to the European Parliament in Strasbourg that has forgotten its history and purpose. The Commission still vaunts itself as being 'Guardian of the treaties'. It is there to see the Treaties are remembered and respected. The 'Guardian' did not even remember when it first met as a College! 

  We have the spectacle of the European Parliament that does not recognize that 11 September 2012 was the sixtieth anniversary of the first meeting of the European representative body. Its president then was Paul-Henri Spaak, after whom the Parliament has its main building named in Brussels.

The day following this unmarked anniversary, the President-Guardian of the Treaties, Mr Barroso came to speak to them about the need for democracy and a Federation. Did he mention that they should be celebrating the sixtieth anniversary of European Democracy? Not a word. The silence remains deafening. Of all 753 MEPs, not one got up to mention the fact. Why? Simply because all the heads of the main political parties made it clear that this was not acceptable.

Do you know why? After the first assembly of the Community met under the dynamic leadership of Paul-Henri Spaak, he created an enlarged Assembly called the Ad Hoc Assembly with some members of the Council of Europe. They were tasked to draft the European Political Community, a democratic system based on supranational principles.

Schuman refers to this European Political Community treaty in the same passage cited above. The legal term 'supranational ' appears in the very first article. So are both the Commission President and all the MEPs ignorant or less than sincere? Anyone who really wanted democracy would have recalled the early principles of supranationality that was designed to bring to Europe the most democratic, fair and just system that had been conceived.

Fifthly if this approach to a new democracy were sincere, the Commission would have reminded Europeans, like Schuman did, that the Great Charter defined the principles up on which any Community of Europeans must be built. Instead to my knowledge the Commission has yet to publish this Great Charter. It refuses to publish this foundation of European law! For Democrats who wish to understand the principles which notably say that no treaty can be put into effect without the full acquiescence and support of the peoples, they can read the original French or the English translation on www.schuman.info.    

Election7: Politicians' Ministry of Truth 'FORGETS' to celebrate the 60th Anniversary of Europe's DEMOCRACY

Did Europe's politicians forget? Today 11 September 2012 is the sixtieth anniversary of the first assembly of the European Parliament.

Guess who was the first president? None other than Paul-Henri Spaak. Yes, the same one after whom the Paul-Henri Spaak building of the European Parliament is named. It is difficult for the MEPs to forget the name. It houses the Hemicycle, the main debating chamber plus scads of other conference and committee rooms. But the MEPs 'forgot' to celebrate the very central democratic reason why they have a building boasting Spaak's name. They 'forgot' to celebrate why they have a job and a handsome salary.

Spaak's Presidency has been written out of the politicians' history on flawed and erroneous site of europa.eu However those interested in the principles and roots of democracy can find details of Spaak on Wikipedia or good history books. The importance of the Spaak presidency is underlined when it is realized that in just a couple of days of action, Spaak had created a special Assembly (the Ad Hoc Assembly) to draft the European Political Community, based on supranational democracy. The Council of Ministers had asked the Assembly of the Coal and Steel Community to help draft the architecture for a democratic Europe. Irony indeed. The Council today would do no such thing even with a partially elected European Parliament. By writing Spaak out the political fraudsters now in the European Parliament are trying to write out democratic history so the public does not question present Politburo politics. George Orwell, the author of the anti-totalitarian novel 1984, must be turning over in his grave! Today we have much more than a Ministry of Truth.

Did the MEPs really forget the date? Well it should be a date that is important for all democrats. We are told Democracy is now being talked of again. Confidence and trust in European politicians reached an all time low recently according to Eurobarometer polls. Trust in the EP fell from 56% in 2007 to 46% last year. Trust in the Commission, the ECB (both 36%) and Council (31%) plumeted.) Can a currency survive without the people's trust?

Now is the time to emphasize democracy, say the politicians. Is that what the present Politburo system is all about? The fact that they 'forgot' indicates that the political powers are not really interested except for a thin veneer of democracy. They can decide policy behind closed doors. They want the public to agree this is democracy. They live in a dreamworld that invents its own fraudulent history. They think a political cartel can run not only European politics but cheat the money markets.

That goes for not only 'normal' EU expenditure but now the money-crazed little outfit called the Eurogroup (which isn't an institution of the EU) and its totally extra-Treaty Big Brother Eurogroup composed of heads of government. They want to grab hold of between FIVE and SEVEN times the EU budget to cover over the financial misdeeds and crimes of their political co-conspirators of the mammoth EURO FRAUD. All Member States politicians were active or passive culprits in this misuse of European money to cover skyrocketing debts, political backhanders and falsified statistics. The public is then asked to claim 'ownership' of the Council Diktat. No democracy, no legal system. Generations into the future will have to pay for this fraud. The poor suffer most from political duplicity. The European Central Bank, whose head was chosen in secret with no other candidates able to apply, is now a willing and profligate partner with YOUR money, throwing good money after bad to help crooks and a crooked system.

Did the Parliamentarians really forget? Six months ago I mentioned this important date to several MEPs including a former President of the European Parliament. No action.

Yesterday, one of the leaders of the major political groups told me that the question had never arisen to his knowledge among any of the joint meetings with the other groups.

So why did they all REFUSE to mark the date?

Well they are not alone.

• On 10 August 2012 the Commission REFUSED to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the first meeting of Commission /High Authority of the first Community. Jean Monnet was its first President as the Europa site reminds us all. Mr Barroso's spokesperson said they were too busy to remember such dates!
• On 18 April 2011 the Council of Ministers REFUSED to celebrate the first meeting of the Council that signed the FIRST treaty of the EU, the European Community of Coal and Steel. It and the other institutions refused to publish the great European Charter of Democracy that says that no measures, no laws and no treaties can be passed without the full-hearted consent of the European peoples. This legal document forbids any treaty -- such as the Constitutional Treaty or the Treaty of Lisbon to be passed and considered law without the peoples' consent. The Charter was signed as a legal document to prevent any state or the Community as a whole from being governed by a Politburo as was then the case of the People's Democracies in Central and Eastern Europe.
• On 8 September 2012 the Council of Ministers -- and indeed the European Council its bosses -- REFUSED to celebrate the first meeting of the Council under Europe's first treaty. Chancellor Konrad Adenauer of Germany was the first president of the Council.
• The Consultative Committees first met on 26 January 1953. It is not known whether they will mark this occasion.
• The European Court of Justice of the EU will mark the event of their opening session in December. After all lawyers cannot write off their history as easy as politicians. Case law has dates on them.

The Council of Europe is not afraid to celebrate its history. It celebrated the sixtieth anniversary in 2009. What happened in European history after 1949 ?

Well, firstly we must turn to the Constitutional Treaty and then the Treaty of Lisbon, which apart from the removal of the European Flag and anthem, is basically identical. The public in several countries realized that the Constitutional Treaty was not either a Community system or fair. They voted it down in France, the Netherlands in May-June 2005. It failed before a further referendum with an expected No in Ireland, UK and elsewhere could be held. Instead the text as the Treaty of Lisbon was forced through by regimented political parties in the national parliaments. Countries which had promised a referendum, REFUSED to have one. No one else was asked what they thought of it. And if they did, the Council did not care. This is called the Politburo method. The European Parliament to its lasting shame refused to demand the full text of the document before they approved it, like sheep to the slaughter. It removes Parliament's power to dismiss the Commission.

In 2007-8 in order even to get the Member State parliaments to vote for a document that was not available as a full-text, the Council spent an enormous amount of money in a Public Relations campaign. Where did the PR money come from? You guessed it -- the European tax-payer. The Council decided to CELEBRATE the anniversary of the European Union. Unfortunately there was only 1957 to celebrate. It was NOT the anniversary of the EU. It was merely the anniversary of the second and third Communities of the Treaties of Rome, the Economic Community and Euratom, for nuclear security, anti-proliferation and energy independence (little mentioned).

So 1957 became the Politburo 'BIRTHDAY' of Europe. The Parliament -- which was composed of spineless yes-men and women agreed. They celebrated their fiftieth anniversary. That was a FRAUD.

By REFUSING to mark any landmarks of democracy, by supporting the Gaullist system of Council-knows-best, European politicians are not only undermining democracy itself, but also their cherished, illegitimate currency, the Euro. Only a democratic Community system can lay the democratic foundation for a currency circulating in a score of diverse Member States. Without democratic trust the EU is entering a parallel history of the People's Democracies of East Germany, Poland, Hungary and the rest. No amount of writing by the European Ministry of Truth will prevent the fate of counterfeit democrats.