EU vice-presidents to probe who suppressed the anti-corruption Charter of Liberty -- AGAIN!
Three EU institutions pledged to publish the Charter in April 2021 but bureaucrats refused!
“We will not allow any autocracy to attack our democracies from within,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament in her State of the Union message.
Fine words. The European Commission then announced a plan for the “Defence of Democracy” on 12 December.
How should the people themselves defend their rights against abusive bureaucracy? What defence did the Founding Fathers provide for people’s human rights in their treaty’s Charter of the Community ?
Charter of Liberty
How do people distinguish real democrats and the false?
Are Europeans living in an open autocracy run by wolves clothed in warm-sounding democratic vestments? How about a pack of wolves in an oligarchy — the rule by a clique? They might install a single person who becomes a controller of the people? A sort of ‘autocrat’?
That would be one way to consider a person chosen without passing any of the criteria that are listed in the foundational treaties. They require a totally independent person whose impartiality is beyond doubt. The Commission president is supposed by treaty law to be the impartial arbiter who embodies the trust of people, associations of civic European society, and national interests. Not an active politician who owes allegiance to a party or one who is a hidden lobbyist or nationalist!
The way the president has recently been chosen — unrestrained from human rights considerations of the population and their interests —shows that the European Council has turned into an oligarchic politburo.
Politicians have generally lost the trust of the people. But these politicians consider that the Commission president should be a fellow politician who meets their needs above all and perhaps exclusively.
Certainly not like the early presidents who were never politicians but they defended European democracy with vigour in the most difficult battles. They were engineers, diplomats, academics, lawyers and international civil servants. They were also respected and reputed as known defenders of democratic values.
Democratic Defender Values
The treaty guarantees for impartiality are written in the Charter of the European Community. The Charter of the Community, also called the Joint Declaration, is a treaty document signed by all Founder Governments. It describes how the institutions should work honestly and justly.
The Governments agreed that all abuse and corruption inside the institutions — such as undemocratic deviations — should be judicable at the Court of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in Strasbourg. Thus it would be seen to be judged with totally independence.
Perhaps that is the main reason why the French Government refused to send it with the documents that set up the European institutions like the Council itself and the Commission.
Now the same corrupted institutions, feeling themselves released from ethical or moral obligations of the Charter, are refusing to re-publish it.
And if they did?
Zooks! It might give people ideas about democracy! The Charter is sorely missed.
The evidence is that the main levers of people control are in the secretive hands of the European party political oligarchs. They are not in the hands and hearts of the people.
Just look how President von der Leyen got put into her job. She was not a candidate — she was totally unknown to the general European public. The people were not told she was even a potential candidate. But a clique of national leaders meeting in secret decided that the German Minister of Defence should become their choice, whatever the public thought. They gave themselves unwarranted powers to select anyone among the EU’s half a billion people, anyone who took their fancy such as a fellow politician. And they would not tell the people (who put them in power) anything about it!
Oligarchs elect their ‘Autocrat’
How did Ursula von der Leyen become president of arguably the most important institution in Europe? A closed door meeting of the secretive European Council of 2 July 2019 announced to the people who would be this ‘autocrat’. To the surprise, shock and astonishment of the public, Ursula von der Leyen was declared their choice.
The public could not hear any of the voices, or were they able to evaluate the opinions and interests of their allegedly democratic leaders as they discussed issues, ultimately affecting many aspects of their lives and livelihood. People, normal people called citizens, were excluded from the debate. There is no written record of discussions available, as in most governmental systems. In the UK system debates are recorded in a publication called Hansard.
This European circus could hardly be called democratic. Perhaps ‘autocratic’ is the best word. That best describes how the doors of the European Council were slammed in the faces of the public. The closed doors signified that the leaders did not want to hear the voices of the public.
That is how the People’s Republic of Brussels is run! North Korea and Communist China take note.
Given the public uproar, the leaders decided to hold a one year Conference on the Future of Europe.
The Rights of the People
If the leaders recognized the rights and freedoms of the people spelt out in the Charter of the Community would the future look brighter?
Launching the Conference on Europe’s Future on the day after the 70th anniversary of the founding treaty and that of the Charter of the Community, leaders were asked:
Will you publish the Charter of the Community and the full text of the Schuman Proposal that initiated the Community process? These are vital for debates.
All three leaders, representing the European Commission, the Parliament and the Council agreed.
It did not happen. This is why I raised the question again this week at the press conference of Commission Vice-Presidents Suica and Jourova.
Institutional Failure
It was never published during the whole conference that ran from April 2021 to May 2022, despite many reminders!
This abuse and maladministration was taken up in three time-consuming cases to the European Ombudsman. But neither the Charter, nor the full Schuman Proposal, was published.
The Ombudsman, to her shame, did nothing about it. She apparently agreed with the European Commission when they said there was not enough space on the europa.eu website to place the three pages of the Charter, the Joint Declaration of Ministers representing the signatory Government of the European Community! It might confuse the public!
This Charter is a fundamental part of the Founding Treaty!
When did the Commission decide not to publish the treaties on the basis of which it owes its existence?
The Ombudsman wrote to me on 27 January 2023:
Regarding publication of the Joint Declaration on the Commission’s main website and on the EU inter-institutional website, the Commission noted that the objective of these websites is to provide clear information on the Commission’s political priorities, initiatives, results of EU policies and general information about the EU, including its history. In light of this, the information on the websites has to be selective to allow the public to navigate them easily. Thus, the Commission decided not to publish the Joint Declaration there to keep communication focused on key information.
What an extraordinary load of flannel!
Obviously this poor excuse of an argument does not apply to the capacity of the website of the Conference on the Future of Europe. It had unlimited space on its computer. It was also supposedly dealing with the Democratic Deficit as a priority.
But larger questions are raised about the EU eliminating Treaty Law.
Who made the decision not to include it, thus overriding the Vice-president of the Commission, the Council and the Parliament?
Who is in charge of the Commission website? The Vice-President or some lowly technician or bureaucrat?
Who is guarding the corruption and the corrupt guardians?
Why is it so essential for the Commission not to publish the Charter?
Why wasn’t it published in the Official Journal with the other parts of the Founding Treaty?
Press Conference on the Defence of Democracy
My letter to Vice-President Suica
Dear Vice-President Suica,
My thanks for answering my questions at the press conference in Strasbourg yesterday {12 December}. https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-250324
I am particularly interested and concerned to understand the reason why the two key foundational documents of European unity, the Charter of the Community and the Preamble to the Schuman Proposal were not published in the documents and on the website of the Conference on the Future of Europe. I made a number of reminders to the authorities for this publication during the whole period of the conference. Without result.
The documents should also have been published on the europa.eu website and in official documents and publications.
In fact they still have not been published on the website of the EU institutions, including the European Commission's.
The lack of bureaucratic response to your positive approval for publication is even more disturbing considering the European Commission is designated the Guardian of the Treaties.
The Charter of the Community is fully a part of the founding Treaty of Paris of 18 April 1951 where its is designated as the Joint Declaration of the Ministers representing the signatory Governments of the Treaty. French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman called it the 'Charter of the Community' on p 146 of his book Pour l'Europe.
This title reflects the historic Magna Carta of 1215, because of its identity with civic freedoms. The Charter makes it clear that the principles it enunciated are valid not only for the founding treaty but also subsequent amendments and future treaties.
Thus it is an important legal instrument to rectify several outstanding issues that were designated in the founding treaties such as
the principle of one person, one vote;
open government during the deliberation process of legislation;
open candidatures for the post of president of the European Commission;
and others that have been in the treaties continually for about 70 years.
I am writing to you, Madame Vice-President, so that you can send any documents to this email address. Other documents can be sent to my address in Brussels.
Many thanks for your help in this important matter,
Yours sincerely,
David Price,
Editor
Schuman Project
eurDemocracy
Consequences for Europe are Grave
Without the Charter of the Community and the ability to challenge decisions that are made behind closed doors, the levels of corruption are only likely to increase.