Democrat - November-December 2007 (Number 105)
Giscard d'Staing*
to
Mr Brown and Mr Miliband
Commenting on drafting the Lisbon Treaty
"I have taken on the work of comparing the draft of the new Treaty of Lisbon with the Constitution on the 'nine essential points'. To my surprise, and, to tell the truth, to my great satisfaction, these nine points reappear word for word in the new project. Not a comma has changed! The only thing is that you have to really look for them because they are dispersed in the texts the new Treaty refers to, namely the Treaties of Rome and Maastricht. The only difference is that the qualified majority voting is put off until 1 November 2014, while with the Constitution, it would have come into force straight after ratification. I do not see the interest of this delay and I think we could have done without it."
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* Giscard d'Staing headed up the Convention which drafted the original European Constitution this was subsequently rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands. Only Ireland had a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty
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