"Lisbon’s Constitutional Revolution by Stealth"

The Brussels Journal
Mon, 2009-11-30 09:47
An analysis by Prof. Anthony Coughlan

Excerpt:
With the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on Tuesday 1 December, members of the European Parliament, who up to now have been “representatives of the peoples of the States brought together in the Community” (Art.189 TEC), become “representatives of the Union’s citizens” (Art.14 TEU).

This change in the status of MEPs is but one illustration of the constitutional revolution being brought about by the Lisbon Treaty.

For Lisbon, like the EU Constitution before it, establishes for the first time a European Union which is constitutionally separate from and superior to its Member States, just as the USA is separate from and superior to its 50 constituent states or as Federal Germany is in relation to its Länder."

"The 27 EU members thereby lose their character as true sovereign States." ...

"Most Europeans are unaware of these astonishing changes, for two reasons. One is that, with the exception of the Irish, they have been denied any chance of learning about and debating them in national referendums. The other is that the terms “European Union”, “EU citizen” and “EU citizenship” remain the same before and after Lisbon, although Lisbon changes their constitutional content fundamentally.

The Lisbon Treaty therefore is a constitutional revolution by stealth."...

"Three steps to a federal-style Constitution

Lisbon’s constitutional revolution takes place in three interconnected steps:"

• 
  "Firstly, the Treaty establishes a European Union with legal personality and a fully independent corporate existence in all Union areas for the first time"

• "Secondly, Lisbon abolishes the European Community which goes back to the Treaty of Rome"...

• "Thirdly, Lisbon then makes 500 million Europeans into real citizens of the new Federal-style Union which the Treaty establishes"...

"In the post-Lisbon EU the rights and duties attaching to citizenship of the Union will be superior to those attaching to one’s national citizenship in any case of conflict between the two"...

"The EU will be constitutionally superior even though the powers of the new Union come from its Member States"...


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The Brussels Journal