Article 48
5. If, two years after the signature of a treaty amending the Treaties, four fifths of the Member
States have ratified it and one or more Member States have encountered difficulties in proceeding with
ratification, the matter shall be referred to the European Council.
I feel better now.
A demagogue is someone who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
Article 48.5 of what? If it is Lisbon itself, it has no effect, since it requires all to accept it to bring it into legal force.
But surelly it would be the European Council who would have to deal with it anyway?
We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns — the ones we don't know we don't know.
It doesn't give the Council the power to make changes other than unanimously, and even then changes made cannot be ratified in Ireland without referendum. This is Article 48.5 pre-Lisbon. Thankfully we have rejected Lisbon and by extension the new Article 48 with its 'simplified ratification process' which would have allowed Brussels bureaucrats and the Irish elites to get around the need for a referendum. So dream on.
I didn't say that it gave the Council any power in relation to Ireland.Originally Posted by FutureTaoiseach
It doesn't give the Council the power to make changes other than unanimously, and even then changes made cannot be ratified in Ireland without referendum. This is Article 48.5 pre-Lisbon. Thankfully we have rejected Lisbon and by extension the new Article 48 with its 'simplified ratification process' which would have allowed Brussels bureaucrats and the Irish elites to get around the need for a referendum. So dream on.
It gives them the power to find a solution without unanimous ratification.
A demagogue is someone who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
It might be a future back door but not now. 48.5 is not yet part of the Consolidated Treaties.
It would be an interesting question to put to the Referendum Commission next time (and let's face facts - there will be a next time) - "what could the European Council do in that circumstance, a vetoed treaty being referred to them"?
No, but all the nations have signed the Treaty, so from that point of view, it has effect.
A demagogue is someone who will preach doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
Democracy's a bitch, isn't it?
I was going to answer this but instead I'll just say: Prove it.No, but all the nations have signed the Treaty, so from that point of view, it has effect.
A nice try by the Euro Nazis but Lisbon is dead in Ireland anyway and technically legally all over Europe as well.
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