Quote Originally Posted by Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla View Post
The Lisbon Treaty is the same document with the word "Constitution" removed.
Admittedly, the differences are small.

That said; other than the symbolic stuff (it being a "constitution", officially enshrining the flag and anthem) which were removed from the Lisbon treaty, I really don't see it's ratification as a suitable subject for a referendum. The biggest change, and probably the biggest among the legitimate concerns, was the expansion of qualified majority voting as opposed to unanimity. I thought, and still think so, that this was an overwhelmingly good thing. Many of the common people however would read some headline in The Sun or Le monde along the lines of "this is going to give the unelected eurocrats the power to force stuff like, whatever on our country!111!!!"

And they'd buy into the headline completely, despite the fact that none of them would be able to name any specific area of policy where qualified majority voting would be applicable to which they'd object. Hell, polls showed that one of the reasons many Dutch people voted against the EU constitution was because they felt that Turkey should not be allowed to join the EU, something of zero relevance to the question at hand.

And then there's of course the fact that even those people who voted against the constitution would, for the most part, still vote for parties in national elections that ratified the Lisbon treaty. Don't give me that bullcrap about the EU not being an issue in national elections, or that there are no alternatives to established parties. In most countries there are parties who advocate leaving the EU and they're composed of one-trick-ponies accompanied by full blown idiots. Representative democracy FTW - the failure of the eurosceptics to get their act together and organise themselves into an electable party is not my problem. Of course, people could still vote Tory in the national elections and vote UKIP in European elections to spite the so-called europhiles, but most of them don't.

Don't like being in the EU? Does the majority of your nation dislike being in it? Then the fault is with your politicians, and your political system.