From the desk of The Brussels JournalA quote from Giuliano Amato, the Italian Foreign Minister and former Vice President of the European Convention, at a conference in London, 12 July 2007 [audio]
They [EU leaders] decided that [the amended constitutional treaty] should be unreadable. If it is unreadable, it is not [the European Constitution, which the voters rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands], that was the sort of perception. [...] In order to make our citizens happy, to produce a document that they will never understand [...] There is some truth [in it]. Because if this is the kind of document that the IGC [intergovernmental conference] will produce, any Prime Minister – imagine the UK Prime Minister – can go to the Commons and say ‘look, you see, it’s absolutely unreadable, it’s the typical Brussels treaty, nothing new, no need for a referendum.
Non-Imperial Empire, 11 July 2007
Europe Has Given Up on the People, 27 June 2007
An Air of Celebration in Brussels: Politicians Defeat the People (2), 27 June 2007
Human Rights Are a Weapon Used against the People, 26 June 2007
An Air of Celebration in Brussels: Politicians Defeat the People, 26 June 2007
Back in the EUSSR, 21 June 2007