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1. In 26 EU member states the population is not allowed to vote on the Lisbon Treaty,

even though in all these countries a large majority was in favour of a popular vote and in a democracy all rights derive directly from the sovereign – the people. The Irish people are the only European sovereign allowed to vote on the Lisbon Treaty – and they turned it down.

Related links:

Statement by Irish Commissioner McCreevy that most EU countries would vote NO on the EU Treaty:
http://euobserver.com/9/28382/?rk=1

Reaction by Austrian ÖVP politician Karas underlining the brisance of McCreevy's candid statement. However, both statements were not even mentioned by the Austrian media:

http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20090630_OTS0132

Separation of powers means more:

In a democracy, all power comes from the people, the sovereign.

Every adult citizen has an equal right to take part in democratic processes, such as elections, as this expresses the value of egality (fr. égalité). If the vote is delegated to a representative, this power must not be concentrated too much, according to the principle of separation of powers. This democratic core principle envisages the separation of

• legislative (parliament),

• executive (government), and

• judicial (justice) power.

Furthermore,

• constituent power (sovereign/people) and

• „„constituted" power (government, parliament) must be clearly separate.

Thus, the constitutions, or a „basic treaty" such as the Lisbon Treaty should not be designed – as was the case – by the governments and parliaments and adopted by these, but by the final and basic sovereign: us.

Governments and parliament have captured the decision about the „basic treaty"; this constitutes an act of disempowerment, a coup against the sovereigns as the highest democratic authority. It is a deeply undemocratic procedure which weakens the trust in the EU.

The way to a EU constitution is becoming increasingly undemocratic:

In the past, all EU treaties including the currently in force Treaty of Nice have been drawn up and decided on by the governments. Plebiscites only took place in exceptional cases. Each one of these treaties meant that the member states further relinquished parts of their sovereignty.

• The first effort to create a constitution for the EU was launched by the European Parliament when in 1984 a large majority decided to adopt the 22-page Spinelli Treaty as a constitution for the EU. However, the wish of the Parliament was refuted by the governments who apparently deemed it to be too democratic.

• In 1993, the Maastricht Treaty, which was the result of government negotiations, came into force. It turned the commercial union into a political union.

• In 2001, the Treaty of Nice followed which established council decisions on the basis of a qualified majority instead of unanimity as a rule.

• It was only after these developments, that the governments finally managed to constitute a convent which was to draw up a new constitution. This convent however was neither democratically elected nor did it follow democratic rules of procedures: the presidium which was only meant to „moderate" the convent reserved itself the final decision on all issues and actually overruled decisions by a majority of the convent in numerous essential issues. The Luxembourgian Prime Minister Jean-Claude-Juncker, himself a member of the convent, stated: „ The convent as announced as a big show of democracy – I have yet to see a darker darkroom than the convent." (Der Spiegel, June 16, 2003)

• In this convent, the governments who had seats in the deciding presidium, had once again come out on top: The result of this undemocratic process, the „EU constitution" was now presented to the electorates of more than 10 EU member states to vote on. When two of the first 4 plebiscites showed negative results – with a „NON" in France, and a NEE in the Netherlands – the series of plebiscites was cancelled and the constitutional treaty was treated to a new make-over behind closed doors. According to Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik it retained 96 per cent of the substantial content of the old constitutional treaty. Nevertheless, numerous leading constitutional experts now suddenly found that there would be no further need for a plebiscite... In France, President Nikolas Sarkozy openly admitted that the governments had decided against further plebiscites on the Lisbon Treaty because they feared further negative votes.

Link to "Europa nicht ohne uns" pp. 21-41 http://wissen.mehr-demokratie.de/3836.html

10255 people from 26 EU member states signed the petition already (since September 2009)