Bluemerle

France wakes up to EU control - 50 years late!
Rodney Atkinson

Le Monde of the 9th February 2007 reports a judgement by the Conseil d’Etat – France’s supreme court for administrative justice – which granted European law an effective "constitutional immunity".

This of course means no more than what we British democrats (ie those who believe in the sovereignty of the voter) have known for decades - but which most of the peoples of Europe only instinctively FEEL to be wrong. The official realisation by the French "Etat" (the French concept of the State has a power and credibility in French politics which contrasts with the views of the average truculent libertarian Brit!) that European Union Directives and regulations, once transposed into French law have legal supremacy.

Even the French may now realise that (as nationists in Britain did in 1972) that the French Constitution de facto no longer exists. And what de facto (in effect) no longer exists is not long for this world de jure (in law)! We are used to profound constitutional losses being confirmed by courts in relatively minor political matters and this French case involved greenhouse gas emissions in the steel industry. Since this was recognised as a matter of EU "competence" the Conseil has given over the power of decision to the European Court of Justice.

It is even more remarkable that a French Law Professor, Dominique Rousseau, interviewed in Le Monde, has so tardily woken up to the fact that "this decision seals the primacy of Community law over the collection of national law. European law, whether it be direct or derived, from now on will enjoy constitutional immunity." Where has he been for the last 40 years?

Where have the French people been as their political class drove the "European project"? Well, where they always are in continental European politics - nowhere. The corporatist political classes rule, the only function for the people is to vote in such a way (various forms of proportional representation which prevent real change) that they can be marginalised. The State and its political class carry on regardless.

But then, unfortunately (and the Germans were hopping mad at the decision to bring democracy into Franco German EU stitch up) the French made a mistake and asked their people to actually take a decision - should France accept the European Constitution? They said, resoundingly, NON! Now they have their respected Constitutional Court letting the cat out of the bag - the French Constitution no longer exists and with it France! Will the nationalistic French tolerate that? I doubt it. The EU's days are numbered. No wonder the German Bundesbank held on to its Deutschmarks!

The whole EU project was based on the Franco German embrace but it was an embrace based on mutual suspicion and contempt. They had to cling to each other in desperation. The French supported the EU so long as they ran the Brussels adminsitration - they no longer do. They supported it so long as Germany was bound up through the Euro and majority voting - but Germany has gone its own way in Eastern Europe where it is increasingly dominant and the new member states have little sympathy with France. The Germans are suffering from the Euro, so are the French. The Germans are fed up of being patronised by the French and the French see their dominant subsidised agriculture being eroded by the EU Commission and the World Trade organisation.

It is wake up time in Paris - and Berlin!

Britannist

Good article by Rodney, brother of actor Rowan. 8)

Never a truer word said about Germany. Germany's natural orientation is to look east. And it's true that the Franco-German relationship is bogus. Neither country really likes each other. The German people, certainly, prefer the British.

As for France - it's not that they've just woken up that they've lost their independence to the EU. It's the fact that Germany is now in the driving seat of the EU (quite right - since it is the biggest single member) and the French now suddenly find it convenient to pick fault with an EU which they are (I am pleased to write) finding it harder to manipulate.

mkpdavies

It's not France or Germany. It's a political elite, backed and courted by the money elite in this world.

French sheeple are the same as British sheeple in the main. They get led by the nose into doing whatever the powers that be want them to do,

Maybe won day the proles of all nations will wake up and smell this coffee, but I won't hold my breath.

__________________
http://brits4ronpaul.blogspot.com/
http://wokinglibertarians.blogspot.com/
http://lpuk.org

My ignore list

Labour, Blue Labour, Lib Dems

Britannist

At least in France they got a referendum (on the EU Constitution).

Chirac may have only called it because he thought he was going to win - but the people of France got a vote nonetheless.

We've been given nothing. :evil:

At the very first oportunity someone needs to change the system here to that used in Switzerland (i.e. referendums on important constitutional matters and other issues).

NoMoreEUSSR

The French may well have voted "non" primarily because they hate Chirac. They probably would have voted "oui" had Chirac urged them to vote "non"!

The Dutch "nee", however, was totally clear and unambiguous and you can't put any spin on that.

With any luck, that will happen right after the imminent EU exit. :twisted:

This-England

Libertarianism leads to one world government.
We need Nationalism and now to save us.
Viva Le Pen!

andypandy

Viva Le Pen? What is a English Democrat doing supporting Le Pen?

Is he the only anti-EU politician in France? I doubt it.

andypandy

Viva Le Pen? What is a English Democrat doing supporting Le Pen?

Is he the only anti-EU politician in France? I doubt it.

Britannist

I agree with what you write - the Dutch vote shows a shift in Holland to a more eurosceptic position. The Dutch 'No' to the EU Constitution was not a a protest vote.

In France, while there were certainly a large number of anti-EU and eurosceptic votes in the EU Constitution referendum 'No' result there, a minority of the 'No' vote in France was a protest vote. The europhile political establishment in France will try and split up this 'No' vote if there is another referendum on the EU Constitution in France.

In Holland, hopefully, if there is another referendum, the Dutch people will say an even bigger 'No' and punish those europhiles who had made them vote twice on the same subject.