Most of us have not read the Lisbon Treaty so we've only heard, from those who are informed, it marks a significant shift of power from national governments to the EU in the field of justice and home affairs. It will lead to an increase in the volume and scope of EU legislation, which is already having a profound impact on EU citizens' civil liberties and privacy.
As well as measures on asylum and immigration policy, EU ministers and the European Commission are currently negotiating a raft of controversial new proposals, which are set to radically increase the EU's role in policing, criminal and security matters. EU leaders hope to reach formal agreement on many controversial new initiatives by the end of the year.
They include: a target to train a third of all police officers across the EU in a 'common culture' of policing; the mass collection and sharing of personal data including DNA records into an EU-wide database; controversial surveillance techniques including 'cyber patrols'; the creation of a fledgling 'EU Home Office' with powers to decide on cooperation on police, border, immigration and criminal justice issues; an EU 'master plan' on information exchange; the transfer of criminal proceedings among EU member states; a three-fold increase in the number of controversial EU arrest warrants; access to other member states' national tax databases; and EU laws on citizen' right to internet access, among other things.
The present Swedish EU President doesn't think the plans go far enough and calls them "too modest".
Rather than type this paragraph I shall quote it directly from the article:
The UK Government’s claim that under Lisbon the UK will maintain independence and can ‘pick and choose’ which justice and home affairs policies it opts into is a smokescreen. In practice, the UK has often been a key driver of policy, and has in some instances even exported domestic initiatives to the rest of the EU, particularly those that increase the power of the state over the individual. The most prominent examples of where the UK has pushed the agenda include the Data Retention Directive, the use of Passenger Name Records collected by travel companies and the European Arrest Warrant.
This method of ‘exporting’ UK initiatives to the EU is akin to policy making via the back door, circumventing adequate democratic controls.
Why are we still going to elect 646 MPs to Westminster next year when their remit has changed radically with this Treaty? Shouldn't we be calling for MPs to have an amended job description? Shouldn't they be subject to a work assessment in the same manner as anyone in a similar situation in the private sector?
The whole article is certainly worthy of a few minutes of your time - in particular the Measures Already Agreed or in Force.
Source: Open Europe
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12 comments:
Let's face it, we're buggered.
In a matter of days (when Vaclav has caved in) we will be subsumed into the EUSSR. It's all over bar the shouting, and a fat lot of good that will do us. Already under an Orwellian microscope, becoming a sub-state of Europe will only mean that they turn up the magnification.
Our way of life is gone, gone, gone. Wee Eck (my MP, btw) can scream for independence until he busts a blood vessel. It is now pointless. We already have a new name and it isn't Scotland. We are known as the North Atlantic Tranche.
Lovely, isn't it? We will no longer be a country. We have been downsized to a region.
Here's a couple of sure bets: Cameron is a shoo-in, and he will not hold a referendum.
This is a scary time for all Brits. Our grandchildren will talk about our inaction with disgust, and with shame.
CR.
Good point about our administrators pushing for a euro policy change when they think they would have a hard time implementing it domestically and then blaming Europe when we start moaning.
This lot need to update their website
Euro Gendarmerie Force
Interesting motion on the Commons order paper for the end of business tonight:
RULE 56 (1) OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION RULES
[No debate]
Secretary Jim Murphy
That, in accordance with rule 56 (1) of the Parliamentary Election Rules contained in Schedule 1 to the Representation of the People Act 1983, the sealed packets containing the completed corresponding number lists forwarded to the sheriff clerk at Kirkcaldy following the Glenrothes by-election on 6 November 2008 (1) shall not be destroyed by the sheriff clerk other than as provided for in the protocol agreed among the Secretary of State for Scotland, the electoral registration officer for Fife, the returning officer for the Glenrothes parliamentary constituency and the sheriff clerk for the Kirkcaldy sheriff court district and dated 16 and 19 October 2009 (Cm 7729); (2) may be delivered by that sheriff clerk to that returning officer; and (3) may be opened by that returning officer in order that a substitute marked copy of the register of electors may be made available for public inspection, all in accordance with and subject to the conditions specified in that protocol.
To be decided without debate (Standing Order No. 118(6) and Order of 20 October).
(hat-tip: LS at politicalbetting.com)
Aye CR, you're right there, it's far too late.
I've read various descriptions of what we are referred to and that's one of them.
Of course Cameron will get in and not hold a referendum. 'Once the Lisbon Treaty is ratified we shall say our position' is the mantra right now. We KNOW their position, they can't do a thing.
It's the attitude of my generation which was one reason I started blogging CR, I just couldn't believe how many people were prepared to go with the flow and not question anything.
When Scotland allowed her regiments to be lost that was when I really woke up because I fought against that. My peers weren't interested - they were only interested in their own lives in a narrow way.
Maybe my parents' generation tried too hard to give us everything they didn't have and we stopped thinking for ourselves.
It's a hellish legacy we leave our grandchildren and all caused by us because of our complacency.
One other reason is that my generation was brought up to trust your fellow man and we didn't notice when trust left through the back door when spin came in the front.
It's good to see more lies uncovered banned, but many like Derek the Eurosceptic have been telling us that for a long time.
Stuart, please tell me that this isn't another way of fiddling results. Please.
Yes - I'm afraid the water has just reached boiling point and the frog is unconscious - too late to leap out and save himself thus he has proved the 'Boiled Frog Experiment'.
He could have seized the opportunity to escape much earlier but was lulled and duped by the promise of increasing comforts and benefits under the control of others with their anonymous hand on the thermostat.
Little did froggie know that it would be his own rendered reserves that would enhance the 'invite only' gourmet content of the EU trough. Little did all the little froggies know that their fate would fall into the fangs of the snake they thought he would have confessed his past sins through his conversion and be bannished like the poisonious serpent he is, never again to squirm his way back to power.
Where is Rikki-tikki-tavi when you need him?
Stuart Dickson said...
Neat little tidy up there. Having created sufficient fraudulent votes, we now tidy up any chance of it being proven. Nazis made to look reasonable.
Scary!
- Aangirfan
Still CallMeDave has been on the media today saying he'll hold a referendum - can you believe it Clarinda?
Possibly trying to find his Darzee but with no success.
It's shocking and of course 'no debate'. What can we do OR?
Aye indeed Aangirfan, indeed.
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