Schuman Project
David
Heilbron Price
Editor
Mr.
Hans-Gert Pöttering
President,
European Parliament
5 March 2008
Dear President Pöttering,
Since
the first session of the Assembly under the presidency of Paul-Henri Spaak in
September 1952, Parliament has grown in stature. The growth of democratic power
is mainly based to the Article 24 of the Treaty of Paris and the equivalent in
following Rome treaties. This gave the Assembly/Parliament the means to dismiss
the European Commission for grave misdeeds or corruption.
Following
our discussion today, I would like to ask you to encourage an in-depth analysis by the
Parliamentary Committees of the surprising, even shocking, implications of the
Lisbon Treaty. This will render the parliamentary power of dismissal practically
impossible in the future. Democracy itself is under threat.
In reply
to my question yesterday, the Rapporteur of the draft Lisbon Treaty resolution,
Mr. Corbett, confirmed that the politicization of the Commission by vote of the
Parliament will render it impossible in practice for any future Parliament to
dismiss the Commission. The Commission President will reflect partisan political
elections. He will inevitably be a party member. If a case of party political
corruption occurred in both Commission and major party machines, those who voted
to install the Commission are highly unlikely to vote to dismiss the person they
so highly eulogized earlier. It requires a 2/3 majority with an open vote. Thus
the Commission will become ‘unsackable’. This system also disenfranchises
98% of the population who are not party members from being Commission
President.
As
Europe’s founding father Robert Schuman conceived it, the Commission should be
an impartial, independent guardian of the treaties and all European interests.
It is also the anti-cartel watchdog. The unwise draft changes offer an open
invitation to corruption by cartels, including powerful multinationals, to
subvert ALL major European party political systems or suborn party political
secretariats to ‘go easy’ on cartel or trust operations. All European
citizens will suffer. The Commission recently fined a US multinational some 900
million euros, not for cartel illegalities but for refusing to obey a
Commission anti-cartel decision and a Court judgement to stop such illegalities.
A fraction of this money could subvert any political party. Further, Europe is
now in a very delicate position in relation to petroleum and gas supplies.
Nation States in Europe and the Middle East have massive sovereign funds that
could be surreptitiously employed to foster their self-serving economic and
political aims in opposition to the fair interests of our citizens.
I am
asking you, Mr. President, to give urgent, public attention to this serious flaw
in the Lisbon treaty so Parliament and democratic institutions can eradicate it.
Yours
sincerely,
Intelligent Person’s Guide to
European Treaties.