The best things can always be briefly stated, were Daniel Hannan’s words about the US constitution:
“The Lisbon Treaty, say its advocates, is shorter than the old European Constitution. Where the previous draft ran to 349 pages, the new one is a mere 287. (As opposed to my copy of the US constitution which, with all 27 amendments, runs to a mere 18: the best things can always be briefly stated.)”
***
Briefly stated, perhaps the next European Constitution will start to propel the ‘Federal Republic of Europe’ towards the greatness achieved long ago by the United States of America.
Ralf Grahn
Source:
Daniel Hannan: Testing our intelligence with the Treaty; Telegraph blog, 2 January 2008;
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/danielhannan/jan08/lisbontreaty.htm
Thursday 3 January 2008
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I wonder how the Eurocrats can justify this one? http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2780 The Constitution comes in at 67,850 words, and the Treaty 76,250, a full 8,500 words longer. And the page total?
ReplyDeleteThe Constitution has 349 pages and the Treaty has 287.
So it stands to reason that, despite being 8,500 words longer the Treaty is 62 pages shorter and is therefore the much vaunted Mini-Treaty so beloved of Mr Sarkozy.
Word counts and page counts give some indications, but they aren't that important either way. The contents matter more, as the posting on Hannan's opinion on the US Constitution indicated.
ReplyDeleteThe Constitutional Treaty was long enough, but at least it was a lot more reader-friendly than the Lisbon Treaty (as long as we have to wait for consolidated versions in all the official languages of the Union).
To reach agreement, all the member states had to move. There were basically three groups at the outset: 1) the 18 countries which had ratified the Constitutional Treaty, 2) France and the Netherlands with the negative referenda and 3) the 7 member states which had neglected ratification.
You are right to point out that the Reform Treaty seems to be more than the initial idea of a Mini-Treaty, but it is a weakening of the Constitutional Treaty, which may cause joy to some people.