EU Treaty, may Barroso resign
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Open letter to the President of the European Commission. After Ireland said “No” to the Lisbon Treaty with more than 53% of the poll, a gesture, a move is much needed. Straight away. Dear President Barroso, We believe in the principle of accountability. Political leaders must be responsible before people and resign when their work or their reputation have been stained.
Under Your presidency, the institutional Europe has gone through two painful defeats. The first one: France and the Netherlands said “No” to the Constitution in 2005. The second one: the Irish “No” to the Lisbon treaty, which is nothing but that very same Constitution just clumsily disguised as the author of that document, Giscard d’Estaing has acknowledged .
In a normal democratic system, no matter where in the world, two referenda in a row terminated with two refusals by the people would have caused the Executive to quit. As a matter of fact, such a move would be logical and wishful by now.
Logical, because there must be a reason if people have said “No”. Either the project was not any good, and in that case You are the natural emblem being the President of the European Commission; or the project has not been properly explained. And in this last case, our thinking goes straight to the millions of euros wasted on pointless propaganda; the long-standing lack of European media; the distance of the European institutions, hidden in their glass and steel fortress (the Berlaymont). Either way You must resign.
Such resignation would turn out to be really useful and highly appreciated. By such a gesture you would show that in Brussels people’s complaints are listened to; that Brussels’ institutions have finally realised that it is just about time to stop throwing referenda based on hundreds of pages that NOBODY reads, based on obscure treaties, on worn out debates. Image of countries that use the same currency but hardly communicate with one another. One year ahead before the last day of your mandate comes, your walking out would bring about a crisis in Europe for the sake of accountability. That would be likely to represent the end of your European career. But it would also be a farewell with class in name of democracy. It would be a decisive electroshock that would oblige the EU to turn page…to elect a real Constituent Assembly able to give birth to a real Constitution. Fifteen pages would be fair enough…
Regards from (café)Babel,
Eurogeneration Blog
In the picture (Photo European Commission), the personal page of President Barroso: when are you going to launch a blog, Mr President?