Allister clashes with German Foreign Minister on Constitution
23 January 2007
During a discussion between German Foreign Minister, Frank W Steinmeier, in his capacity as current President of the Council of Ministers, and the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels on the future of Europe, DUP MEP Jim Allister challenged his insistence on a Constitution for the EU. The Foreign Ministerīs visit was an extension of the campaign to revive the Constitution, launched last week in the Parliament by Chancellor Merkel.
The Ulster Euro MP, in an exchange with Minister Steinmeier, asked If the Council of Ministers had no shame? "The Council approved and promoted a Constitution which set its own test for survival, namely approval by every Member State. It had spectacularly failed that test. Thus whether 18 states had ratified a defunct document was of no weight. Yet, here you are still trying to contrive ways and means to subvert that rejection. Dress it up as you will, that is what this is all about. The EU has spent the last 2 years trying to subvert the declared will of the French and the Dutch and will waste the next 2 years on the same totalitarian mission."
Turning to the Minister's dislike of referenda, Mr Allister said, "Is it not the ultimate irony that advocates of the Constitution proclaim it is for the benefit of the citizens of Europe, as essential to their well-being, but run scared of letting those same citizens decide if it is what they want. Maybe, Minister, if you had let the people of Germany vote in a referendum they too would have rejected their government's support for the Constitution, just as the people of France and Holland did, and the people of the UK would, if given the chance."
