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A Bad Deal for Ireland: A Bad Deal for Europe

Self-Amending Treaty

The Lisbon Treaty - A Bad Deal for Ireland: A Bad Deal for Europe - Self-Amending Treaty

2. Self-Amending Treaty

Article 48, Article 308 and others make the treaty self-amending in that they enable the European Council to extend the areas in which the EU can legislate and make major changes to the functioning of the Union by majority vote, without the need for a new treaty and, therefore, without the need for referendums in Ireland or elsewhere.

Three examples:

(a) The enlarged scope of the Flexibility Clause (Article 308 TEC/TFU), whereby if the Treaty does not provide the necessary powers to enable the new Union attain its very wide objectives, the Council may take appropriate measures by unanimity. The Lisbon Treaty would extend this provision from the area of operation of the common market to all of the new Union's policies directed at attaining its much wider objectives. The Flexibility Clause has been widely used to extend EU law-making over the years;

(b) the proposed "Simplified Treaty Revision Procedure" which would permit the Prime Ministers and Presidents on the European Council to shift Union decision-taking from unanimity to qualified majority voting in the "Treaty on the Functioning of the Union" (Article 33.6, amended TEU), where the population size of certain Member States is likely to be decisive; and

(c) the several "ratchet-clauses" or "passerelles" which would allow the European Council to switch from unanimity to majority voting in certain specified areas such as judicial cooperation in civil matters( Article 69d.3.2), in criminal matters(Art.69f.2), in relation to the EU Public Prosecutor (Article 69i.4), and in a number of other areas.



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"Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly" ... "All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way."

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Le Monde, June 2007

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