just curious to my family across the pond
what is going on with the recent NO votes?
they are resounding no's too... you hear the political take... and see them try to save face
but i dont hear much from regular folks..
any thoughts?
hi paul...this could be the most ignored topic but....here's my cent ;)
what is happening here in europe is that the nations that has referendum as way to approve the European constitution that was lately approved and should be operative on 2006 are voting NO to it...i mean the populations of this nations (France and Holland for now, but consider that they are 2 of foundators of UE...)are scared by this change of directions and, mostly, they are afraid of loosing economics power opening the Union to east countries (turkey for example...)
Considering that most people in the EU were never asked, it's not a case of second thoughts. It's obvious that the EU is very good for big companies but not that good for the working people. Unemployment rises, prices exploded with the Euro, social security is cut back.
There was no referendum in my country - not for the Maastricht treaty, not for the Euro, not for the constitution. Very much the same in France and in Holland. People say no because they were asked. They are tired of being governed by a commission nobody ever voted for. They are tired that the EU tells them what they can do and what not, that every single procedure has to be the same throughout the union and the nations are no longer allowed to make their own decisions.
The united Europe is a great goal and vision but it has to be done for the people.
yes but did it not literally start with the Treaties of Rome in 1957
with other countries joining as it moved along and morphed into what it is today?
just seems to have been around for a while and the changes should not be a surprise to everyone since mostly done by treaties right?
..thus my second thought comment seems No could have come much earlier in the process then now...
unless of course the regualar folks kept completely in the dark on it by the PTB....
I'm from The Netherlands and I like to shine my light on it. Well.. To be honest, I voted against the European constitution too. I like to give you a couple of reasons.
The most important reason is the reason that's already named by Yourvalentine. For some countries like Spain, things have changed positively after Maastricht and Nice... But for the "old six", it has resulted in a recession. And the people were never asked anything. So we have moved some things to Brussel without seeing tangible results. To me, Brussel is one big paper house with more translators than politicians. We don't need a new treaty, we need to get some results. I know we reached the point of no return in Europe so we have to look into the future, but by voting "No" we have made our statement.
Other important reason is that the Dutch are afraid of losing power. We are a small country, and in a new Europe we are nothing. We always were one of the six, now we have less influence than Poland for example.
The third reason hasn't something to do with Europe, but more with our government. The people here are unsatisfied with the current government. Because the government wanted a "yes", lots op people said "no". See it as a protest voice. And we had the feeling that we were not taken serious by our own government. For example, they've said that there would we a war in Europe if we voted for a "no". Or that we were a right-extremist or a communist if we said "no".
I'm for unity our information and strengths, but I think it goes to fast at the moment. We are not yet ready for this constitution .
It's weird here....2/3rd of the government is PRO EU Constitution and 2/3rd of the Dutch population is CON! I always thought the government should be like a representation of the nation...
So this was a huge fiasco, especially for Holland and a HUUGE disappointment for our government. LOL
We all know where this is going..
I'm glad I got the chance to do something about it! It probably won't help and the EU Constitution will come eventueally, but now I at least have the idea I did something about it. I had and took the chance to say NO!
<font color=#C5150>The Fairy King</font> wrote: It's weird here....2/3rd of the government is PRO EU Constitution and 2/3rd of the Dutch population is CON! I always thought the government should be like a representation of the nation...
So this was a huge fiasco, especially for Holland and a HUUGE disappointment for our government. LOL
We all know where this is going..