Background
The official proposal to a Constitutional Treaty for the European Union was rejected in referenda in France and the Netherlands. It could have opened the way for more centralization to Brussels.
Now
The 27 member governments agreed in Lisbon October 18, 2007 on a new version, called the Reform Treaty, renamed to the Lisbon Treaty - the same content but extremely difficult to read.Why? They wanted to avoid new referenda...
However, Ireland's constitution had to let the people decide, and the result in June 12, 2008 was NO !
But will the rest of the EU governments take NO for an answer? No...They will likely go on asking the parliaments to ratify the Lisbon Treaty.
Therefore. Do what you can. Read Free Europe Constitution - and vote. And tell your friends to do the same.
For everybody, an alternative:
Vaclav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic, to Carl-Johan Westholm, founder of the Free Europe Constitution, May 30, 2007:
- Your initiative is important in that it wants to change the public debate. I think this really has been one of the major problems - the agitation about the EU being in a perpetual motion and about the integration constantly "improved" by every new initiative.
- The ten principles included in your proposal of constitution are a good conceptual guide-line for the course European integration could take. It would be a good "mini-treaty".