Upcoming Events

International | EU

no events match your query!

New Events

International

no events posted in last week

Blog Feeds

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Human Rights in Ireland
Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.

offsite link Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 21:31 | imc

offsite link Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 19:30 | Calli Morganite

offsite link Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 09:04 | Mind Agent

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 21:00 | Mind Agent

offsite link Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Sat Aug 02, 2025 00:54 | 1 of indy

Human Rights in Ireland >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Top Therapist ?Ousted? After Trans Activist Row Sun Oct 26, 2025 19:42 | Richard Eldred
The leader of one of Britain's largest therapy groups has faced death threats after raising concerns about the safety of treatment for gender-questioning children.
The post Top Therapist ?Ousted? After Trans Activist Row appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Brazilian Chef Rejects Prince William?s Vegan Banquet: ?It?s Like Asking Iron Maiden to Play Jazz? Sun Oct 26, 2025 17:07 | Richard Eldred
A Brazilian chef has ditched cooking for Prince William at the Earthshot environmental awards after being told the menu must be vegan ? calling it a total slap in the face to Amazonian tradition.
The post Brazilian Chef Rejects Prince William’s Vegan Banquet: ?It?s Like Asking Iron Maiden to Play Jazz? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Banal, the Craven and the Sinister at a College Staff Well-being Day Sun Oct 26, 2025 15:00 | Dave Summers
Join Dave Summers for an eye-widening tour of a college staff 'Well-being' day, where the normally inoffensive 'fun, stress-busting' activities take a decidedly sinister turn.
The post The Banal, the Craven and the Sinister at a College Staff Well-being Day appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Fury as ?Hard-Up? Met Police Set to Splurge ?5 Million a Year on 64-Strong Woke Taskforce? as Half o... Sun Oct 26, 2025 13:00 | Richard Eldred
While the Met is axing half its mounted officers, closing stations and slashing frontline policing to plug a ?250 million hole, it's somehow found ?5.2 million for a 64-strong 'woke' taskforce and 63 diversity events.
The post Fury as ?Hard-Up? Met Police Set to Splurge ?5 Million a Year on 64-Strong Woke Taskforce? as Half of Its Mounted Officers Face Losing Their Jobs appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link God Help Us! Students Given Trigger Warning About the Bible?s Death and Violence ? Including Christ?... Sun Oct 26, 2025 11:00 | Richard Eldred
After Homer, Shakespeare and Dickens, the Bible is the latest classic to get a trigger warning for its depictions of violence, including Christ's crucifixion.
The post God Help Us! Students Given Trigger Warning About the Bible?s Death and Violence ? Including Christ?s Crucifixion appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

The EU and the Lisbon Treaty: Making a weak democracy weaker

category international | eu | opinion/analysis author Wednesday June 11, 2008 17:53author by jmstipe20 Report this post to the editors

Background information for the Irish referendum on June 12: The EU today lacks proper democratic procedures. The Lisbon Treaty boosts this lack of democracy making the EU even more remote to its citizens. This is the conclusion of a study by Michael Efler, Percy Vogel, Gerald Häfner, Roman Huber and Felix Wünsche.


Download (pdf - 85 Seiten - 1 MB): http://www.mehr-demokratie.de/fileadmin/pdfarchiv/bund/...t.pdf

Summary

The bigger the political entity, the more important it is to ensure democratic and transparent structures. Being the largest and most powerful supra-national institution, the EU is so undemocratic that even the German EU Commissioner Günter Verheugen admitted: "If the EU were applying for accession here, we would have to evaluate it as 'democratically insufficient'."

* The EU is centralistic / 80% of all new laws come from Brussels
* A weak EU parliament / insufficient separation of powers
* Civil servants with too much power / lacking democratic legitimation
* Non-transparency and secret diplomacy

The Lisbon Treaty will make it worse.

* The Lisbon Treaty creates more centralisation without sufficient democratic control
* Small countries in particular continue to lose influence
* The EU creates its own rules by means of the flexibility clause
* This is possibly the last Irish referendum on European matters
* Military policy without democratic and judicial control
* The Lisbon Treaty is barely understandable

Download Summary (pdf - 2 Seiten - 1 MB): http://www.mehr-demokratie.de/fileadmin/pdfarchiv/bund/...r.pdf

© 2001-2025 Independent Media Centre Ireland. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by Independent Media Centre Ireland. Disclaimer | Privacy