2008-07-01T12:49:42Z https://www.taurillon.org/Lisbon-Treaty-ratification-What-doesn-t-kill-you-only-makes-you#comment4850 2008-07-01T12:49:42Z

<p>I agree on that the Lisbon Treaty would have brought necessary and positive reforms, but we must avoid 'End justifies the means' type of thinking. The EU is embodied in its treaties, but also in its larger political culture, its relation to democracy and how those very treaties have come into being.</p> <p>As Joan Marc pointed out, in EU treaty ratification national democracy can block or veto (potential) European democracy, something that is not productive or democratic as such. He, however, continues :</p> <blockquote class="spip"> <p>However it looks like the European leaders will decide to move on disregarding the Irish vote. This is unfortunate but necessary.</p> </blockquote> <p>I disagree. Although the Irish with their vote only represent a tiny fraction of the EU electorate and therefore their veto can't be regarded as democratic from a European perspective, the Irish result was democratic as such, without any prefixes (European, national, majority democracy etc.). And the EU's problem is that it doesn't seem to be willing to face democracy as such. Be it EP election results, national treaty referendums or popular misgivings about the Union, European leaders seem to view democracy as a necessary evil, which provides a set of challenges and resistance through which reforms and decisions are then pushed through.</p> <p>The EU needs to boldly face and confront all the democratic challenges it has. Personally I find national EU referendums a bad policy, but when EU elites need to palm off by changing the treaty title, carry out the treaty negotiations in extreme secrecy, belittle coming referendums, intimidate the voters with the possible consequences and then call a No vote 'a national problem', we have a larger problem than just a mere No vote. The EU needs to sort out and radically reform its relation to democracy, no matter in what form it comes in.</p>