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In a world currently focused on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Israel-not to mention a biting recession-it's easy to overlook important European events. Yet the European Union (EU) stands once again perched on the brink of approving the Lisbon Treaty (really the renamed EU Constitution) designed to drastically increase the structure, power and influence of this transnational governmental body.
Many in Britain view the possibility of a federal Europe with a jaundiced eye. Notice the reaction of Conservative Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague, who is very concerned about "the creation of a new EU president, an EU foreign minister ... [and] a legally binding charter of Fundamental Rights, the significant expansion of EU powers over areas such as criminal justice and more [which] has led the President of the European Commission to proclaim that the Treaty gave the EU 'the dimension of empire'" ("Labour Has Left Britain on the Fringes of Europe," The Spectator, May 30, 2009, emphasis added throughout).
Yet as things stand now, the British people will have virtually no say on the contents of this treaty, having been denied a previously promised referendum. The Lisbon Treaty will be imposed on the citizens of the United Kingdom without their democratic consent. Hague went on to write, "The Treaty is almost identical to its predecessor, the EU Constitution [previously rejected by both France and the Netherlands], to whose text the [British] government sought 275 amendments, of which only 27 were accepted."
The implications of Britain saddled to a more powerful and influential European Union frighten those who truly understand European history. Yet a Daily Mail feature article tells us: "Britain is willing to provide all our armed forces to fight under the EU flag in future wars, a minister has revealed. Europe Minister Caroline Flint said that every operational unit of the British Army, the Royal Navy and RAF will be on offer as part of an EU 'force catalogue.' This would help form a 60,000-strong joint EU military reaction force to police the world's trouble-spots" (Matthew Hickley and James Slack, "Now All Our Forces Are Put at Europe's Disposal," April 4, 2009).
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