Lisbon Treaty

Has anyone looked into the Lisbon Treaty? I have read that it effectively undermines our constitution, our parliament, our government, and gives the power to abolish our political parties, force us into the Euro, and basically in conjunction with other EU treaties, is an attempt to create a sort of dictatorship or single governing body which renders individual state governments powerless. So I decided to look into it (sad I know) and came across some clauses in the actual treaty on an EU site:

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/JOHtml.do?uri=OJ:C:2007:306:SOM:EN:HTML

Well I don't really know what to say, I've written a couple below and said my thoughts on it, I'm still unbiased and not really sure what to think, so I thought I would post some of the clauses of the treaty and see what everyone thinks?

Article 2

Throughout the Treaty:
(a) the words ‘Community’ and ‘European Community’ shall be replaced by ‘Union’ and any
necessary grammatical changes shall be made, the words ‘European Communities’ shall
be replaced by ‘European Union’

(c) the words ‘the Council [shall], acting in accordance with the procedure referred to in
Article 251’ shall be replaced by ‘the European Parliament'

Page C306/14
Article 8A-4:
"Political parties at European level contribute to forming European political awareness
and to expressing the will of citizens of the Union."
(At the EU’s Party Financing Conference in Madrid in June 1999,parties at the European level were defined as parties with voters in more than 10 countries. Therefore, we do not express the views of "The Union")


Page 306/34
Section 2 "Provisions on the common security and defence policy"
49) (a):
"1. The common security and defence policy shall be an integral part of the common
foreign and security policy. It shall provide the Union with an operational capacity
drawing on civilian and military assets. The Union may use them on missions outside the
Union for peace-keeping, conflict prevention and strengthening international security in
accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter. The performance of these
tasks shall be undertaken using capabilities provided by the Member States.’;"
49) (c)
"3. Member States shall make civilian and military capabilities available to the Union
for the implementation of the common security and defence policy, to contribute to the
objectives defined by the Council. Those Member States which together establish
multinational forces may also make them available to the common security and defence
policy.

Member States shall undertake progressively to improve their military capabilities.(!!!!!!) The
Agency in the field of defence capabilities development, research, acquisition and
armaments (hereinafter referred to as “the European Defence Agency”) shall identify
operational requirements, shall promote measures to satisfy those requirements, shall
contribute to identifying and, where appropriate, implementing any measure needed tostrengthen the industrial and technological base of the defence sector, shall participate in
defining a European capabilities and armaments policy, and shall assist the Council in
evaluating the improvement of military capabilities
(so member states have to actively improve their military capabilities??! For "The Union"?)
49-6
"Those Member States whose military capabilities fulfil higher criteria and which
have made more binding commitments to one another in this area with a view to the
most demanding missions shall establish permanent structured cooperation within the
Union framework. Such cooperation shall be governed by Article 28 E. It shall not affect
the provisions of Article 28 B."
(does this mean us? Does this mean we will be paty of a "permanent structured cooperation within the Union"?)


Page C-306/15
Article 8-B
"4. Not less than one million citizens who are nationals of a significant number of
Member States may take the initiative of inviting the European Commission, within the
framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens
consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties."
(So to petition against the EU, you have to ask for further laws?)


Page C-306/12
Article 3-A
"3. Pursuant to the principle of sincere cooperation, the Union and the Member States shall,
in full mutual respect, assist each other in carrying out tasks which flow from the Treaties"
"The Member States shall facilitate the achievement of the Union's tasks and refrain from any measure which could jeopardise the attainment of the Union's objectives.’."

(REFRAIN FROM ANY MEASURE WHICH COULD JEOPARDISE THE ATTAINMENT OF /THE UNION/'s OBJECTIVES. In other words- do not oppose the EU, sorry, "The Union")

"The Member States shall take any appropriate measure, general or particular, to ensure
fulfilment of the obligations arising out of the Treaties or resulting from the acts of the
institutions of the Union." (Member states should take measure against acts of other members?)