CONFIRMED: Klaus has signed the Lisbon Treaty

[ibis]

It isn't black and white what the implications of this Treaty will be. The ECJ will ultimately determine what they mean. The ECJ has constantly extended the competences of the EU into new areas. A recent paper by former German President Roman Herzog on the Mangold Case is an example. Yes there are benefits to the EU - but that should not make it a sacred cow above criticism. One problem is the rampant corruption in the EU as shown by 15 years during which the EU budget hasn't been signed off on by the EU Court of Auditors. If that happened in Ireland FG and Labour would be screaming about how "corrupt" it all is. We shouldn't have one standard for Ireland and another for Europe.

No-one intends that it be above criticism - but the 'criticism' offered by people like yourself and Mary Ellon Synon isn't any use, because it's criticism from ignorance and/or fantasy - or in some cases deliberate dishonesty. Most eurosceptics - including those you regularly quote - offer criticism of the form "the problem is the EU...now, what's the question?". That doesn't offer any solution to the real problems the EU has - it offers the EU as the problem in everything, and the solution as removing it. They're about as much use as Marxist management consultants.

[hiding behind a poster]

It's not just national-shortcomings. Fair play to Mary Ellen Synon on exposing waste by the Euro-elites, such as cash spent on getting children to draw pictures in the name of 'European integration' and introducing children to a donkey in the Netherlands (!):

FT, why won't you actually READ what the European Court of Auditors actually SAY when they refuse to sign off on the EU Budget? They refer to issues with member state governments, and not with the EU as an institution.

Now, do you or do you not accept the fact that THAT is why the Court refuses to sign off on the Budget? It is the reason they themselves give, after all.