The EU's new treaty

The new treaty is "a cosmetic success" for Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, writes Syp Wunia. Certainly, he succeeded in having the text called something other than a constitution, but this "so-called success by Balkenende doesn't concern the heart of the treaty ... : the transfer of a vast jurisdiction to Brussels and Strasbourg, the loss of the veto in areas as vital as criminal code, immigration and access by foreign nationals to Dutch social security. Sovereignty is in the new European treaty as it was in the old Constitution, given up for the 'interests' of the European Union. It's as if all would become more democratic when it is no longer the Second Chamber (of Parliament) in The Hague, but the European Parliament in Strasbourg that decides everything. The loss of national jurisdiction is definitive, and it's on this point that Balkenende failed completely."

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