Voluntary Withdrawal Clause (Was also in the rejected Constitutional Treaty) This clause is taken from t failed Constitutional Treaty. It only regulates what would already have been possible in the past, since no member state would have been obliged to stay in the European Union against its will. The new provision (Article 49a TEU) only makes this option visible and provides a procedure for an order retreat It foresees negotiations, but in case the fail, the member state can leave the Union two years after notifying the European Council of its intentions. The voluntary withdrawal clause can thus be seen as a safeguard against unconsidered moves by national governments (e.g. in case a government comes to power after promising to leave the Union in the election campaign, it would at least have to wait for two years, if negotiations fail)Th paragraph is taken from CEPS Policy Brief number 147 December 2007) On Europa, it clearly states that, After joining the European Union, countries remain members by choic The Treaty of Lisbonincludes a voluntary withdrawal clause, recognising that the member states may always withdraw from the Union if they wish to.� From another site, Did u know that the Lisbon Treaty includes a clause specifying (for the first time!)? a process for leaving the EU? With this in mind, shouldn't people who want Britain to leave the EU support this treaty? (Cheeky!) I have stated previously that once Lisbon has been ratified by all 27 States and has become live I d t if any Country would be able to ˜withdraw, because I have no doub t all that the EU would be ready to implement most of the articles the Treaty it has waited so long to implement. Remember, The currency of the Union shall be the Euro? &nbs Our Government has signed up to that there is no clause in th Article which states, Only after the UK has let the people vote YES NO in a referendum. Gradually, over the years, Britain Administrations have been chipping away at our own Common Law Constitution. For instance, where we once only allowed British subjects/nationals in our Parliament, police, forces, justices, etc we have signed up to there will be no discrimination nationality which is contrary to our o constitution. We cannot close our borders and we may have to fill in forms to go on holiday, or to work abroad-giving many details as to who we are, where we live etc, maybe finger printed, or eyes scanned. We are spied on, prosecuted for many things, prevented from doing things that were once the norm smoking in public places. Is drinking alcohol the next? Chocolate? Cakes? Sweets? Many things invented, perhaps to take details, fingerprints for the Data Base d money from people to fill the gaps left because Government or EU need it far more than we do? Yet the only people that are free to come and go will be illegal immigrants and we have seen the queues waiting to cadge a free lift while we pay yet again for our Journey. Our Government has signed up to the constitutional Lisbon Treaty, but it has got a withdrawal clause, a get out of jail free clause. We have a RIGHT withdraw. This kind of gives the people a ˜safe feeling, ˜warm feeling when we are sharing our sovereignty over another new area-we are transferring sovereignty, we are not for because we can come out of the EU, see, it says so, it is written in the Treaty. For the very first time, voluntary withdrawal is written into an EU Treaty. This withdrawal clause is like a safety valve to save people, pro-national people from blowing their top, so that Governments can always refer to it, to reassur people. I do not know whether our government really believes what they tell the people; believes how they interpret the Treaties, or even if they have actually read them? One MP that actually signed the Treaty of Maastricht was reputed to have said that he hadnt. Remember also an MP likened T European Charter of Fundamental Rights to the Beano Comic? Another MP, that the EU Constitutional Treaty was Just a -idying up exercise? Did government l the people exactly what they are doing and what these Treaties were about and they wanted and were proud to be part of the making of history? Or did they deliberately lie to the people as the late Edward Heath admitted on TV many years later, that he lied to the people in 1972-75? Or did they just mislea the people because they too wanted the European Union to govern this Country and make all our laws fit in with the continental system of Corpus Juris? To eventually become real citizens of the European Union as the Government has, according to the Royal Website, made The Queen a citizen of the European Union? In the Treaty of Lisbon, they have even given the powers the elected British Government Ministers themselves use on behalf of the British Crown- The Royal Prerogative allegedly for Treaty making, to the European Union. (Art 47a, Union shall have Legal Personality) I did not s anything in the Treaty to say the Royal Prerogative may not be used for war making-or sending our troops into battle. Did you? There is no point in having an EU Army if the EU cannot command it. Ah! Did I hear you say the Queen (Crown) is Commander-in-Chief of our Army? What about our Navy then, who Commands Her Majesty’s fleet?&nbs Did not Her Majesty ˜review her fleet not so g ago? Where is part of it at present? In the EU navy after Somalia pirates and will be so, we are told, for twelve months. I very much doubt the withdrawal clause was ever meant to be used. It is like a comfort zone, it is like putting food in a freezer. We are not going to use our own sovereignty for a long time perhaps, but it is there even though it is out of sight, i s there. We have frozen our Sovereignty, it is still there, we havent annulled it, nor repealed it, and while it is still there, must still be a nation State. Right? In the mean time, knowing our sovereignty is still there, frozen, we can go ahead with the EU Regions, EU Police, Army, Navy, all our food GM food, welcome Codex Alimentarius, mandatory vaccines, actually welcome anything the EU wants to do. Sadly however, we all know what happens to food that has been frozen in the fridge for too long. It is just the same when some one else has been using our sovereignty when we loaned it to them or shared it, even friends think something loan for 30-40 years is theirs forever, to use. Actually the EU is busy planning for the next 50 years that seems like for r to me. Will our MPs still expect us to vo for them? Be paid for governing us? Will we just be Regions of the EU? No Crown as head of State? No British Constitution because our own MP and Government have destroyed it bit by bit? How does the Comfort Zone feel now eh? O I forgot, we can always repeal the European Communities Act 1972 can we? Or is that too another Comfort Zone? Is that just THERE? I suggest that our Government withdraws the very constituti l Treaty of Lisbon before all 27 Nation States ratify it, and put it to the people in a referendum as they should have done in the first place. Rather that than what may or will come after.
"On Europa, it clearly states that, After joining the European Union, countries remain members choice." This is the operative phrase and the very nub of the issue? Formal repeal of the 1972 ECA is possible any time - say, one afternoon in the H of C and then in the H of L, if the political will existed to effect it. But it is not.
We are not locked into the EU by virtue of the ECA, but only by the consensus of the political class at Westminster to ensure that, at all costs (and it will be!) it never becomes an issue for the British electorate. Every political party with the exception of the minorities (UKIP, BNP for example) is terrified of even raising the issue with the electorate, so in effect it will never emerge.
The exception will be the emergence of Lisbon as a major UK domestic political issue, should the Irish vote either 'Yes, or No' in a second referendum. But even under the circumstances of either answer, a Conservative government's (assuming an incoming Tory administration after a GE) reaction will be at best ambiguous or passive.
Of course we have as you say, a right to withdrawal, but that right will not come about because of a re-appraisal of the ECA '72 IMO, but rather on what will follow Lisbon on the part of the Irish, or even a German Constitutional Court decision (pending) not to ratify.
There is one other interesting potential scenario, but not one that is likely to alter much. That is that the Tories, after the Euro elections in June, may be faced with the election of more anti EU MEPs and groups, and delicious irony, may after their departure from the EPP group, be confronted with the dilemma of having to negotiate with the likes of an emergent BNP and/or UKIP presence in order to form another group in which to snuggle up to as they desire.
If in the end the Tories honour their ambiguous promise to hold a referendum on Lisbon, and the answer is a resounding NO from the electorate, then repeal of the '72 Act will be a mere formality will it not?
All hangs on Lisbon, and it would not surprise me if the ECB suddenly "found" an enormous 'bail-out' for the struggling Irish economy for which the obliging Irish would be expected to be duly grateful when placing their vote in a second referendum.
Graham
Monday, 16 March 2009
Withdrawal Clause
XXXXXXXXXXXA under the heading and comment below you wrote:
My understanding is this...The withdrawl clause is irrelevant.
Surely as far as the UK is concerned it does not matter what any EU Treaty may say the British voters have never given legitmacy to anything except a trade agreement , because they have never voted to give THEIR sovreignty to the EU.
The whole EU house of cards [ UK wing ] is built on this illegal foundation of ECA 72. The British signatories to these treaties had no authority from the British electorate to do so.
I am not aware the Monarch has publicly repudiated her Coronation Oath to the British citizens.
The Oath of Allegiance still applies to British ministers via that to the citizens "to defend the Realm" .which means our ability to decide who makes our own laws [ and hence taxes]. It used to be the definition of Democracy.
We can pull the rug on this any time.
Just fire the treasury man who signs the cheques to the EU. and let the EU pay the pensions of any living British signatories.and settle down to sort out which laws we want ourselves.
PS Its a pity the fishermen who rescued Heath from "Morning Cloud" didn`t throw him back as bycatch.
The boat should have been publicly exibited as "Judas silver".
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