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The Telegraph on the EU Constitution

The Telegraph on the EU Constitution (via LGF):

Spain is first [to vote on the constitution], on Sunday. According to the Spanish justice minister: "You don't have to read the treaty to know it's a good thing." In Spain, at least, it seems likely that the faithful will accept this secular bishop's advice: they won't read the constitution, and they will vote for it.

It is natural for Americans to like the sound of the word "constitution". They have the best one ever written in a single document. It consists, in the copy I have before me, of 12 pages, 11 if you exclude the list of the men who signed it. There are also amendments added over the past two centuries: they amount to another nine pages. ... My copy [of the European Constitution]... is 511 pages long [and weighs 2lb 8oz].

This is not a constitution, certainly not a constitution intended to be understood by those it affects. It is a vast agglomeration of decisions made by governments to take power over citizens of vastly differing countries... Rather than confining itself to the division of powers by which a country should be governed – head of state, parliament, judiciary, what's local and what's national – it lays out scores of pages telling people how to run their lives.

Soon, probably next year, we shall be asked to vote on the constitution ourselves. The No campaign has been arguing for quite a long time that every household should be sent a copy of the European Constitution. The Government is proving rather evasive on the point, but what possible objection could there be, apart from the health-and-safety threat to our postmen's spines?

It would weigh scarcely anything extra to throw in the US Constitution with each envelope, thus offering the most instructive possible comparison... [Consider] the opening words of the two documents. The US Constitution begins, famously, "We the People…". The European Constitution begins, "His Majesty the King of the Belgians…". That gives you a fair idea of the different spirit of each document.

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16:27 (utc-5)

Well the BBC have the whole constitution online here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/21_07_04cg00086.en04.pdf

There's a "reader friendly" interpretation of the same here: http://www.euabc.com/upload/rfConstitution_en.pdf

If it was about Linux, someone would have cried "FUD" on that Telegraph article. The Telegraph has been throwing all kinds of semi-high-brow mud at the EU for as long as I can remember. It's actually probably because of the type of reporting it and others have been doing that the EU has made itself less-than-accessible to all.

Think there's an important difference in attitude to bear in mind when considering this constitution which parallels the styles of legal system you have in some EU countries (excepting the UK), compared to the US.

My dumb view is the two approaches you have when defining "The Law" (imagining a clean slate) is you pick either;

- start with no laws - everything is allowed - then amend it as people do thing the society doesn't like (e.g. killing is bad so we'd better stop that). This is the approach used in the US and the UK and is demonstrated by perpetual reference to precedence.

- start with laws for every possible scenario you can think of then fix them (or add more) when something is clearly wrong or hasn't been defined. Believe this is the case is all the German speaking countries. Not sure about France.

Both have pros and cons and it seems like the EU constitution is attempting to be something similar to - define it all up front.

Rather than confining itself to the division of powers by which a country should be governed – head of state, parliament, judiciary, what's local and what's national – it lays out scores of pages telling people how to run their lives.

Hmmm. From the constitution...

The free movement of persons, services, goods and capital, and freedom of establishment shall be guaranteed within and by the Union, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.

Damn them! I feel highly intruded upon! How I am to cope with being allowed to go anywhere?

The European Constitution begins, "His Majesty the King of the Belgians…". That gives you a fair idea of the different spirit of each document.

As you can see, that comes from the preamble, which may actually be an indication of how much the reporter has read (confession - I haven't got much further). It was addressing the heads of each state and it looks like it's been done alphabetically by country...

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS
THE PRESIDENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF DENMARK
THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OFGERMANY
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ESTONIA,
THE PRESIDENT OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC
HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF SPAIN
THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC
THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND
THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LATVIA
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF LITHUANIA
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE GRAND DUKE OF LUXEMBOURG
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF HUNGARY
THE PRESIDENT OF MALTA
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE NETHERLANDS
THE FEDERAL PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF AUSTRIA
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF POLAND
THE PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE REPUBLIC
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLICOF SLOVENIA
THE PRESIDENT OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC
THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF FINLAND
THE GOVERNMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF SWEDEN
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND

The Queen (of England) gets her mention as well...

Sunday, February 20, 2005

The Telegraph on the EU Constitution

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