The Irish and the European Union and freedom

One of the things that we don't pay attention to is the European Union.

For some reason we still see Europe as France, as Germany, as England as....yet that is close to becoming part of the past.

This Friday, the Irish people are again being asked to sign away their sovereignty and freedom to the European Union authorities in Brussels. When the matter was put before them in a referendum in 2008, the Irish voted “No.” Now they have been told to vote again on the same matter. Ireland is the only country of the 27 EU member states where the people are allowed a direct vote about their future. In the other 26 countries which together with Ireland make up the European Union, the governments – not the people – have already decided to transfer national sovereignty to Brussels.

Think about that for a minute. Think about the EU as not an association, but as a country of states, but one in which the states have no rights.

Americans might also wonder why Europe’s governments are so keen on restricting national sovereignty when their peoples oppose it. This is because the EU is basically a cartel of governments. The EU Council consists of representatives of the governments from the EU member states. These governments find it easier to pass laws in the secret Council meetings with their colleagues than through their own national parliaments in the glare of public criticism. Politicians, whether from the right or the left, by nature like the EU project because it facilitates policymaking without accountability to anyone.

Think about a country created not in freedom, but in surrender. Think about a country where Muslim immigration will make it under control of Shari Law in twenty years or less.

If Ireland falls in line and ratifies Lisbon, the EU will be empowered to act as a State vis-à-vis other States and its own citizens. It will become a State in its own right, with its own President, Foreign Minister, diplomatic corps and Public Prosecutor. If Ireland votes “yes,” the national governments of the 27 EU member states, rather than representing their States in the EU, will henceforward be representing the EU in their States. And the national parliaments, currently embodying the sovereignty of their nations, will be subordinate to the EU. As the Treaty of Lisbon says: “National Parliaments shall contribute actively to the good functioning of the Union.” They will be obliged, as the imperative “shall” implies, to further the interests of the new Union, rather than those of their own people.

As a hard headed Scot Irish with a touch of native American and Hungarian thrown in I think my ancestors would be first in line to warn the Irish. It is too late for the others to not vote away their freedom and self governance but not too late for you.

They might even note in their ghostly whisper that the Bureaucrats of Brussels are close to doing what Napoleon, Hitler and the Soviets could not do.

Rule the Continent.

Freedom. So hard to get. So easy to give away.


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