Voluntary Withdrawal Clause (Was also in the rejected Constitutional Treaty)
“This clause is taken from the 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 ‘orderly retreat’. It foresees negotiations, but in case these 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)” (That 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 choice. The Treaty of Lisbon includes a voluntary withdrawal clause, recognising that the member states may always withdraw from the Union if they wish to.” From another site, “Did you 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 doubt if any Country would be able to ‘withdraw’, because I have no doubt at all that the EU would be ready to implement most of the ‘articles’ in the Treaty it has waited so long to implement. Remember, “The currency of the Union shall be the Euro”? Our Government has signed up to that – there is no clause in that Article which states, “Only after the UK has let the people vote “YES” or “NO” in a referendum”.
Gradually, over the years, Britain’s 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 on nationality” which is contrary to our own 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’ like smoking in public places. Is drinking alcohol the next? Chocolate? Cakes? Sweets? Many things ‘invented’, perhaps to take details, fingerprints for the Data Base and 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” to withdraw. This kind of gives the people a ‘safe feeling’, a ‘warm feeling’ when we are ‘loaning’ or ‘sharing’ our sovereignty over another new area-we are not transferring sovereignty, we are not “losing” it forever 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 ‘reassure’ 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 hadn’t. Remember also an MP likened The European Charter of Fundamental Rights to the Beano Comic? Another MP, that the EU Constitutional Treaty was “Just a -idying up exercise”? Did government tell 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 ‘mislead’ 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, “the Union shall have Legal Personality”) I did not see 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? Did not Her Majesty ‘review’ her fleet not so long 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, it is there. We have frozen our Sovereignty, it is still there, we haven’t annulled it, nor repealed it, and while it is still there, we 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’s 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 on loan for 30-40 years is theirs forever, to use. Actually the EU is busy ‘planning’ for the next 50 years that seems like forever to me. Will our MP’s still expect us to vote 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’s and Government have destroyed it bit by bit? How does the “Comfort Zone” feel now eh? Oh, I forgot, we can always repeal the European Communities Act 1972 can’t we? Or is that too another Comfort Zone? Is that just “THERE”? I suggest that our Government withdraws the very constitutional 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.
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16th March 2009.
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