PrintJanuary 13, 2010
The Breaking of Nations
Americans should pay attention to the Lisbon Treaty and the corresponding events in Europe. We're on the same road, and we're fast approaching a point of no return.
Europe -- the Europe of free and independent nations -- is no more. Sovereignty is all but dead there, and a collective behemoth, tellingly referred to as the "European soviet" by Mikhail Gorbachev, now straddles the continent, ushering in a new tyranny for the 21st century. With the unanimous (and highly undemocratic) ratification of the infamous Lisbon Treaty on November 3, 2009, the European Union has achieved a transfer of authority that even the most aggressive military conquests could not. Even the German Anschluss can't compare to this unified surrender of freedom by stargazing Europeans.
Europe is now lost to history. In the Lisbon treaty are calls for E.U. treaty-making power (immediately "binding" on member states -- national parliamentary ratification not optional) [1], a common immigration and asylum policy (i.e., no more national control of illegal immigration flows) [2], and the most damning proposal, a requirement that individual nations receive permission from fellow member-states before military action can be taken in the self-interest of the nation concerned [3].
The agreement says, "The Union's competence in matters of common foreign and security policy shall cover all areas of foreign policy and all questions relating to the Union's security, including the progressive framing of a common defense policy that might lead to a common defense" [4]. The new pan-European High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy now commands the largest collective military force in the region.
Borders are no longer an issue, because Lisbon solves immigration problems by "ensuring the absence of any controls on persons, whatever their nationality, when crossing internal borders" [5].
Even voting rights have been circumvented. Lisbon contains provisions granting foreigners the right to vote and stand in elections in nations not their own, so long as they are European s[6]. Should Germans represent British citizens? With no authentic collective interest, this development promises to sever citizens from their leaders and neutralize political accountability. Even U.S. states don't allow non-residents to stand in local elections.
Also in the Lisbon Treaty is one of the most destructive documents in European history, counterintuitively called the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Long resisted by some member nations due to the large seizures of individual liberty inherent in the document, the charter contains a provision that reads: "Limitations [on individual liberty] may be made ... if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognized by the union or the need to protect the rights and freedoms of others"[7].
The degradation of liberty has already begun. Lisbon comes complete with a European justice system, replacing centuries of Anglo-Saxon common law with the Code Napoleon -- i.e., guilty until proven innocent. European courts can now kidnap innocent British citizens to stand trial in foreign lands by way of the new European Arrest Warrant (EAW). So far, over two hundred Britons have been arrested under the EAW, and 101 have been extradited.
The unelected European Commission can revise, edit, or even remake the laws passed by the people's duly elected representatives. The "primacy of EU law," which has been compared to the American supremacy clause, has been used to overturn historic liberties in the 25 E.U. nations. In fact, significant elements of the Magna Carta were recently overturned with a simple majority vote in the European Parliament, and British leaders were obliged to conform. The exercise of British sovereignty today is a mere formality, as all European law and regulation is "binding in its entirety," leaving to the national authorities only "the choice of form and methods" [8].
The all-powerful European Court of Justice, which began as a trade court very similar to arrangements within NAFTA, has now become a virtual Supreme Court, striking down national laws and changing local cultures and identities artificially to conform to E.U. guidelines [9].
How did this happen? How did independent nations with separate identities and divergent cultures allow themselves to be bullied into submission by a gaggle of European bureaucrats in Brussels? The answer is that the attack on European nationhood was implemented brick by brick, piece by piece, bite by bite. Europe lost its sovereignty fifty years ago with the establishment of an incremental framework designed to feed Europeans an elephant one bite at a time. As the father of the European project Jean Monnet once said:
Europe's nations should be guided toward their super-state without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation.
Those responsible for these destructive steps knew what they were doing. A recently declassified Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) document reveals startling knowledge of the potential damage to British sovereignty prior to British entry into the European Common Market. FCO analysts concluded that "[t]he loss of external sovereignty will ... increase as the Community develops, according to the intention of the preamble to the Treaty of Rome 'to establish the foundations of an even closer union among the European peoples.'"
The end of nationhood in Europe offers a stern warning for the United States, because many of the same individuals involved in the creation of "Europe" are active in the U.S. And here, they won't need fifty years.
We can't comfort ourselves with the common American self-delusion of "that could never happen here," because it is happening here, and on a crash timetable. NAFTA, which was sold as a trade arrangement, has grown into something else, wielding actual power over the United States.
In 2001, a NAFTA panel required America to open its borders to Mexican trucks.
More recently, a NAFTA panel ordered America to rescind a defensive tariff on softwood lumber initiated in response to Canadian softwood subsidies. Americans are to feel comforted, since NAFTA panels have said they will "consider" the rulings of federal circuit courts when deciding cases.
Through international agreements like NAFTA and the World Trade Organization (WTO), panels can overturn unique U.S. laws and privileges. Our elected leaders have shown a willingness to comply, making indirect world government a reality. The WTO requires all present, past, and future laws to be in agreement with WTO rules governing trade. This means that when writing laws, America must bind future generations and implement policies that meet WTO requirements, regardless of whether or not these requirements serve the interests of the United States, or are even constitutional.
Since the beginning of history, national governments have provided the best means of securing people's liberty. Government's limited power is legitimized by the "consent of the governed" within an arrangement called the social contract, usually implemented through elections. National governments, when founded on the Anglo-American tradition, are repositories of liberty. Therefore, the preservation of national sovereignty must be a prime goal of those seeking to preserve liberty.
Sovereignty is a one-way street. It can be regained only through enormous bloodshed. At some point, the loss of our national sovereignty will give unelected foreign authorities the unholy power of deciding the fate of American liberty. This is not a power our government should be allowed to give away. It's time to speak up. We must not follow Europe down the path of destruction.
[1] Jens Peter-Bonde, ed., Consolidated Lisbon Treaty, Title V, Art. 216, International Agreements, (Notat Grafisk: Foundation for EU Democracy, 2008), 142.
[2] Jens Peter-Bonde, ed., Consolidated Lisbon Treaty, Chapter 2, Art. 77, Polices on Border Checks, Asylum and Immigration, (Notat Grafisk: Foundation for EU Democracy, 2008), 74.
[3] Jens Peter-Bonde, ed., Consolidated Lisbon Treaty, Chapter 2, Art. 24, Specific Provisions on the Common Foreign and Security Policy, (Notat Grafisk: Foundation for EU Democracy, 2008), 31-32.
[5] Jens Peter-Bonde, ed., Consolidated Lisbon Treaty, Chapter 2, Art. 77, Polices on Border Checks, Asylum and Immigration, (Notat Grafisk: Foundation for EU Democracy, 2008), 74.
[6] Jens Peter-Bonde, ed., "The Charter of Fundamental Rights," in the Consolidated Lisbon Treaty, Title V, Art. 39, Citizens' Rights, (Notat Grafisk: Foundation for EU Democracy, 2008), 204.
[7] Jens Peter-Bonde, ed., "The Charter of Fundamental Rights," in the Consolidated Lisbon Treaty, Title VII, Art. 52, Scope and Interpretation of Rights and Principles, (Notat Grafisk: Foundation for EU Democracy, 2008), 207.
[8] The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, 9 May 2008, Chapter 2, Section 1, Art. 288, par. 3.
