Separating on Lisbon?

The Lisbon Treaty saga trundles on:

GERMANY’S HIGHEST court dismissed constitutional challenges to the Lisbon Treaty yesterday but called for ratification to be delayed until the rights of the German parliament in EU decision-making are strengthened.

Berlin now faces the challenge of getting the required law change through parliament before general elections in September – only then can president Horst Köhler sign the ratification Bill into law.

That, barring a miracle, will happen. That situation then leaves only three out of the EU's 27 member states still having to complete formal ratification of the treaty - Poland, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Ireland. In Poland and the Czech Republic’s case all that is now required are their presidents' signatures on the legislation; the Republic needss a new referendum in October – the mood seems to be moving towards a "Yes" vote this time. Notwithstanding a possible last ditch effort by the Conservatives in the UK, the Treaty in all probability will be in place by the end of the year- which will leave some very happy:

"Belgium is too heterogeneous. There is too much diversity and too many different views," said Jeroen Overmeer, spokesman for Flanders' Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliante party, separatists who made big gains in this month's nationwide Belgian elections.

The EU makes it possible for countries such as this one to split up. We believe we are experiencing both globalisation and localisation. Some problems are global, like defence or the environment, and these need to be dealt with by the EU. But at the same time democracy needs to be closer to the people, and that is why we are a regionalist party. The two trends go hand in hand".

Damn and blast "heterogeneity" and "diversity" eh?!
The Catalan Nats (pictured here in their customary flag-burning pose) seem to agree:

"We strongly believe in the European Union, because there we have an alliance that potentially gives the same voice to small 'nations', like Catalonia, as to bigger countries such as Spain and France," said Pol Pages, 25, a leading member of the youth arm of ERC, the separatist party which forms an important part of the Catalan regional coalition government."

"And the European Union offers protection," he added. "If tomorrow Catalonia voted to break away from Spain, Madrid couldn't send in the army as it has threatened in the past because we are a part of Europe and protected by its laws.
"Europe to us represents democracy, human rights and a respect for freedom and we hope one day to be recognised as our own state within it."

Why the separatist fondness for Lisbon?

The Lisbon Treaty will grant the EU's regions new powers to challenge law-makers in the European Court of Justice thus putting the likes of Catalonia on the same level in that respect as Spain. Also, more importantly, it will give regions new authority to control the way billions of euros in the EU Cohesion Fund are spent in their particular area. It is seen as an assault on the nation-state and if you're a nat/regionalist/separatist that's a good thing obviously...well, until your own region becomes a nation state in its own right I guess and that seems to me to be the glaring, big, ugly hole in the Catalan and Flemish logic.

Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliante's and Co's chums in the UK have a more varied and (to an extent) nuanced approach to both Lisbon and to what the EU can deliver for their causes. Sinn Fein's highly EU-sceptical and most definitely anti-Lisbon approach (despite somewhat dubious points listed in their "10 reasons to vote No") makes perfect sense. I would have several quibbles with their definition of the Irish Nation, but according to their own tight parameters, the defence of its integrity depends on dealing with Brussels at a very elongated arm's length and thus making sure that the EU keeps its federalist nose out of such areas as national defence/neutrality.

The Plaid Cymru and the SNP take on the EU and Lisbon needs a bit more thinking about. Both parrot the line "Independence in Europe" and to be fair their pro-EU stance probably reflects broad opinion in both countries. Both (I guess) would also take the line of their Basque, Catalans Flemish etc peers in trying to take as much financial advantage as possible of the EU's increasingly "regionalisation" direction. But does that then make them, like the Euro-Nats, pro-Lisbon? A quick google reveals that the SNP has opposed it mainly because if passed the Treaty would hand more control over fisheries policy to Brussels. Both parties also stated they wanted a referendum on Lisbon. But that's it as far as I can see (on a very quick check), nothing was mentioned in either party's manifesto for this month's election.

In the highly unlikely event of them getting their wish of "Independence in Europe", the unpalatable truth that I mentioned in passing when reviewing "A Useful Fiction" will very quickly evolve. It would soon be apparent within the Federal Europe being developed by Lisbon there could be no real "independence" for small regions or states. Economic and social policy for a start would be dictated much more strongly from a centre much more remote and insensitive to the particular needs and requirements of the smaller regions of the UK than is the present situation.

Of course, Scotland and Wales would certainly have the "independence" to fight for their own corner, but with the equivalent of wooden swords and plastic shields against the big boys' tanks and rocket-launchers. So, concentrating too much on the ins and outs of Lisbon doesn't make political sense for either party; much better to keep the head-down and hope that they never have to explain the likely consequences of their dropping out of one Union (in their own terms) pot into another much more uncomfortable and bigger Union fire.