I voted against it. I didn't pay much attention to all of the border-issues like animal rights and privatising. IMHO they don't belong in a constitution, but I don't care enough to make a point of it if somebody wants them in. What I do care about is the relations between the institutions of government and the relations between those institutions and the people and third parties. And I find the proposal grossly lacking in this area. While the proposal does adhere to the general principle of Trias Politica, the legislative branch is very much the junior partner to the executive branch. For instance, under the ordinary legislative procedure (article Article III-396) the European Parliament can not take the initiative to write a law. Not even together with the Council, which could be said to be the other chamber of the legislative branch, it can take the initiative to write a law. Or as another example, the areas where the European Parliament is competent is defined as a limitative list. Sure it is a longer list then previously, but there is something fundamentaly wrong if the Parliament is not competent by default and until and for as long it declares itself incompetent. Something else I very much dislike is the refusal to regulate the separation of government and religion. I understand why it isn't there: there are some countries that would object to a constitution that prohibited favouring one religion over another one. But I don't like that choice.
In the end, the proposal is just the current 1200+ pages of treaty condensed in 500+ pages. And while there are some minor changes where the procedures for decisions within certain institutions are changed from unanimous vote to majority vote, the fundamental flaws in the relations between the institutions and with the people have not been sufficiently rectified. That is not good enough for me. It is simply a bad constitution. Jochem PS And the debate on this list was quite lame too :) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Flash for programmers - Flash MX Pro http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=56 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:159311 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
