Britannia Radio

This is a synopsis of Sarkozy's end-of-term speech to the European 
parliament one in which he puts himself forward as EU President but 
with many more powers than even the Lisbon Treaty provides for!

We'd never be THAT lucky to see "the EU stall!"!

Sarkpzy for his brash arrogance is factiually wrong - more than 
once.  I am indebted to Denis Cooper for pointing out the most 
glaring error of all:-
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If we stick with the Nice treaty, we stay with a European Commission 
with a diminishing number of commissioners. If we move to the Lisbon 
model, every member state will have a commissioner."

Eh, no, the "Lisbon model" is in Article 17(5) TEU, as it would be 
amended, on pdf page 13 here:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Lex UriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:
2008:115:0013:0045:EN:PDF
"As from 1 November 2014, the Commission shall consist of a number of 
members, including its President and the High Representative of the 
Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, corresponding to two 
thirds of the number of Member States, unless the European Council, 
acting unanimously, decides to alter this number."
which Article 17(5) built on the change introduced through Protocol 
10 annexed to the present treaties, pdf page 231 here:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/Le xUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2006:321E:
0001:0331:EN:pdf

from:
"The Commission shall include one national of each of the Member 
States."
to
"The number of Members of the Commission shall be less than the 
number of Member States."
and which was clearly intended to allow the European Council to 
further reduce the number of Commissioners in the future, without the 
need to amend the treaties.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/nicolas-sarkozy-
without-the-lisbon-treaty -reforms-the-european-union-may-
stall-1203623.html
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You'd think the man might get his facts right!  And he'd be more 
welcome if he didn't try and steamroller every meeting.

You can see some interesting insights into the parliamentary debate  
which followed his speech . His body language alone is 
interesting.    The kernel of these videos is a speech by Farage on 
the disgraceful bullying of the Czech Head of State ( not some tawdry 
prime minister) when the odious pair Cohn-Bendit for the Greens and 
the anti-democrat Poettering  (president of the parliament spoke in a 
completely disrespectful way in Vacvlav Klaus own residence in 
Prague.  Sarkozy was asked for his views.  The Farage speech is in 
both videos but there is much more including an altercation with 
Marttin Schultz  in:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMZbs6zu5PU
(11 mins)
The other version has its points too at 4 minutes only
http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/ukip-general-issues/55311-farage-
kicks-some.html

xxxxxxxxxx cs
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INDEPENDENT    19.12.08
Nicolas Sarkozy: "Without the Lisbon treaty reforms, the European 
Union may stall"


The Lisbon process is back on the road. The Irish will be consulted 
again. If we stick with the Nice treaty, we stay with a European 
Commission with a diminishing number of commissioners. If we move to 
the Lisbon model, every member state will have a commissioner. 
[UNTRUE - see intro -cs]  Political pledges were made to the Irish on 
neutrality, taxation and the family. These are recurrent, important 
themes for our Irish friends.

We put a compromise on the table allowing us to assure everyone that 
they won't have to go through a new Lisbon treaty ratification 
procedure because there won't be any change to the Lisbon treaty.

Second, I think that in the future the commission president's powers 
need to be strengthened. Let me explain why. It is very simple, 
because the more commissioners you have, the more authority the 
commission president has to have over the commissioners to ensure 
there is a doctrine, otherwise things are shambolic.  [This is 
absolute balderdash!  The Commoissioners are answerable to the 
President of The Commission (Barroso right now)  not to the President 
of the EU Council.  A wee bit ignorant, wouldn't you say? -cs]

Finally, the commission needs very strong leadership at the head of 
the European Council, because if there isn't strong leadership at the 
head of the European Council, the commission finds itself in a 
situation of having to be guardian of the spirit of the treaties and, 
at the same time, act at the political level. The right balance for 
our institutions is to have a president of the political council 
giving a lead to a commission president, guardian of the spirit of 
the treaties, who, in perfect  partnership with the president of the 
council, must do his job at both the technological and political levels.

Without strong leadership at the head of the council, the commission 
finds itself in a very disagreeable situation of being everything at 
the same time, which weakens it. This is the magic and subtlety of 
the European institutions. I very strongly believe in it.

I would like to end by telling you this: I have been enthralled by 
what I've been doing. I've been very happy to do it. It has been a 
great honour, in no way a burden. For me, it has been tremendously 
eye-opening. I hope all those who succeed me will love the job as 
much as I have, because Europe deserves to be represented, deserves 
to be defended and deserves to have a face. Happy Christmas!
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The outgoing EU president, the French leader Nicolas Sarkozy, was 
speaking in Brussels earlier this week