Gideon Rachman, Financial Times If you want to understand what is happening to the European Union’s constitution, the EU flag is a good place to start

nejtillemu.com

If you want to understand what is happening to the European Union’s constitution,
the EU flag is a good place to start

When the flag is removed from the treaty it should also, I guess, be removed from all public institutions in the European Union.

Otherwise the voters will understand that removing the flag from the treaty was only a PR gimmick in order to hide that they are making a State of the Union.

There You can read that "The success of the Monnet method is based on satisfying immediate needs in Europe in a manner consistent with meeting longer-term objectives but actually separate from them. Maybe the inclusion of the flag and the anthem blurred the difference between the short term and the long term in an unhelpful way."

Svenska Europaparlamentariker om vad EU-flaggan betyder för dem
En symbol för samarbete eller förlorat folkstyre
SvD 16 oktober 2007

Carl Schlyter (mp): För mig är det Europarådets flagga som EU kopierat och gjort till sin.
Den har gått från att vara en symbol för mänskliga rättigheter i alla länder i Europa till att bli en symbol för stormaktsambitioner.

Troops from all 27 EU nations marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris, at the invitation of new French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and other senior EU figures, were also welcomed, underlining France's commitment to Europe despite the rejection by French voters of a proposed EU constitution
Read more here

The European Parliament is considering flying the EU flag and playing the EU anthem more often in its own buildings
as part of a political message to member states who have scrapped the union's symbols from the proposed new EU treaty.
EU Observer 11/7 2007

The parliament on Wednesday (11 July) adopted its opinion on the EU's reform treaty which was agreed by EU leaders last month and which will be subject to detailed negotiations in a so-called Inter Governmental Conference (IGC) in the coming months.

But the EU assembly also "regrets" drafting changes in the new style treaty. It has been stripped of all constitutional elements while explicitly suggesting EU's powers can be limited and handed back to member states.

MEPs are particularly irked about the disappearance from the treaty text of the EU's 12 star flag and Beethoven's Ode to Joy – which were given official status as EU symbols in the failed EU constitution.

In a bid to defy member states on the symbolic issue, the parliament says in its opinion that it intends to give "official character" to the EU's flag and anthem in its own internal rulebooks. Some senior MEPs eye a more frequent use of the unions symbols in official ceremonies in the parliament itself.

At Tuesday's press conference in Strasbourg, the Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was asked what the European Union would be after the new reform treaty has been negotiated and agreed.
His answer: Europe is an empire, a non-imperial one, must be said.
But still, an empire.
EUX.TV 10/7 2007

If you want to understand what is happening to the European Union’s constitution, the EU flag is a good place to start.
European leaders will agree to delete references to the flag in the constitution.
Everybody knows the flags will keep flying.
The words in the constitution will change. But the substance will remain the same.
Gideon Rachman, Financial Times June 12 2007

The constitution is a symbol. After decades in which the EU has gradually accrued more powers – without going out of its way to draw attention to the fact – the creation of a real constitution was a coming-out party for those who believe in a European political union. Rather than disguising the true aim of the “project”, European federalists were proudly proclaiming it – and seeking popular endorsement. So the rejection of the constitution was a crushing blow.

The federalist response – pushed by the Germans who will be in the chair at next week’s meeting – is to repackage the constitution and to try to push it through regardless. The name constitution will be dropped. Instead, the document will be called a treaty and will be stripped of the symbols of statehood – like the flag and the EU anthem. But very little of the legal substance will change.

The aim is to make the constitution seem dull and technical – and so to allow governments to push it through parliaments without any unpredictable referendums. Nicolas Sarkozy, the president of France, has made it clear that this is exactly what he intends to do.

The Germans are strikingly frank about their aims and methods. To meet British objections that the Charter of Fundamental Rights – currently part two of the constitution – makes the EU look too much like a state-in-the-making, they propose to put the charter into a protocol to the main treaty and then to refer to it in a single article in the treaty itself. When I put it to a senior German diplomat that this was a purely symbolic change, which would do nothing to alter the legal power of the charter, he readily agreed.

If the French and Dutch had voted in favour of the constitution, there is no doubt that their verdict would have been hailed as a historic endorsement of political union in Europe. It is only a “No” vote that was taken as a sign of deep confusion.

The repackaging exercise that will be attempted in Brussels next week validates every eurosceptic prediction of how the EU would react to a popular rebuff.

The awkward squad of Poland, Britain and the Czech Republic will be accused of putting the Union in danger.
But the real long-term threat will be posed by those who insist that the EU must press ahead with “ever closer union”, while blithely disregarding the increasingly obvious disenchantment of ordinary Europeans.

Alain Lamassoure, tipped to be the new Europe minister in the Sarkozy government, said Paris will agree to stick "as much as possible to the original text."
"we will play the European hymn or fly the flag whether it is mentioned in the new treaty or not."
He added that the same applies to the exact title of the future EU's foreign affairs minister. "As long as his status and powers are preserved we're fine with [a title change]."
EU Observer 9/10 2007

Hjelm-Wallén efterlyser öppenhet Förra utrikesministern Lena Hjelm-Wallén är kritisk mot bristen på öppenhet i förhandlingarna om det nya EU-fördraget. Hon tyckte insynen och debatten var livligare både när det så kallade konventet arbetade fram det ursprunliga förslaget till fördrag och när Amsterdamfördraget beslutades i slutet på nittiotalet.
Det sa hon i radions Godmorgon världen i morse.
Aftonbladet Europabloggen 10 juni 2007