Is the Lisbon Treaty the same as the European Constitution?
Here's what Bertie Ahern said: 'Thankfully they haven't changed the substance, 90 per cent of it is still there.' (Irish Independent, 24 June 2007).
And Dermot Ahern agreed: 'The substance of what was agreed in 2004 has been retained. What is gone is the term 'constitution'.' (Daily Mail Ireland, 25 June 2007).
Bertie and Dermot have already signed the Lisbon Treaty on behalf of the Irish Government.
Other Quotes
'The good thing about not calling it a Constltution is that no one can ask for a referendum on it' Giuliano Amato, speech at London School of Econmics, 21 February 2007
'Only cosmetic changes have been made and the basic document remains the same.' Vaclav Klaus, Czech President, Guardian, 13 June 2007
'Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly'… 'All the earlier proposals will be in the new text, but will be hidden and disguised in some way.' Giscard d’Estaing, former French President and Chairman of the Convention which drew up the EU Constitution, Le Monde, 14 June 2007 and Sunday Telegraph, 1 July 2007
'With the new treaty, the EU gets content that is not essentially different from the Constitutional Treaty… All key institutional solutions remain… Some symbolic elements will be cleared up and some formulations toned down.' Janez Jansa, Slovenian Prime Minister, Government Communication Office, 23 June 2007
'The aim of the Constitutional Treaty was to be more readable; the aim of this treaty is to be unreadable … The Constitution aimed to be clear, whereas this treaty had to be unclear. It is a success' Karel de Gucht, Belgian Foreign Minister, Flandreinfo, 23 June 2007
'There’s nothing from the original institutional package that has been changed.' Astrid Thors, Finnish Europe Minister, TV-Nytt, 23 June 2007
'As for our conditions… I outlined four red lines with respect to the text of the Constitution: to keep a permanent president of the EU, to keep the single overseer for foreign policy and a common diplomatic service, to keep the extension of majority voting, to keep the single legal personality of the Union. All of this has stayed.' Romano Prodi, Italian Prime Minister, La Repubblica, 24 June 2007
'The substance has been preserved from Luxembourg’s point of view.' Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg Prime Minister, Agence Europe, 24 June 2007
(The new treaty) 'takes up the most important elements of the Constitutional Treaty project.' Guy Verhofstadt, Belgian Prime Minister, Agence Europe, 24 June 2007
'The original Treaty for a Constitution was maintained in substance.' Austrian government website, 25 June 2007
'The good thing is...that all the symbolic elements are gone, and that which really matters – the core – is left.' Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Danish Prime Minister, Jyllands-Posten, 25 June 2007
'It’s essentially the same proposal as the old Constitution.' Margot Wallstrom, EU Commissioner, Svenska Dagbladet, 26 June 2007
'This text is, in fact, a rerun of a great part of the substance of the Constitutional Treaty.' Giscard d’Estaing, former French President and Chairman of the Convention which drew up the EU Constitution, Telegraph, 27 June 2007
'We have not let a single substantial point of the Constitutional Treaty go… It is, without a doubt, much more than a treaty. This is a project of foundational character, a treaty for a new Europe.' Jose Zapatero, Spanish Prime Minister, speech, 27 June 2007
'The substance of the Constitution is preserved. That is a fact.' Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, Telegraph, 29 June 2007
'Virtual incomprehensibility has now replaced simplicity as the key approach to European reform...the changes to the constitutional treaty now proposed are presentational changes that have no practical effect ...They have simply been designed to enable certain heads of government to sell their people the idea of ratification by parliamentary action rather than by referendum.' Former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald, Irish Times, June 30th, 2007
'Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organisation of empires. We have the dimension of Empire but there is a great difference. Empires were usually made with force with a centre imposing diktat, a will on the others. Now what we have is the first non-imperial empire.' European Commission President J M Barroso, The Brussels Journal, 11 July 2007
'France was just ahead of all the other countries in voting No. It would happen in all Member States if they have a referendum. There is a cleavage between people and governments … There will be no Treaty if we had a referendum in France, which would again be followed by a referendum in the UK.' French President Nicolas Sarkozy at a meeting of senior MEPs, EUobserver, 14 November 2007
'The difference between the original Constitution and the present Lisbon Treaty is one of approach, rather than content … The proposals in the original constitutional treaty are practically unchanged. They have simply been dispersed through the old treaties in the form of amendments. Why this subtle change? Above all, to head off any threat of referenda by avoiding any form of constitutional vocabulary … But lift the lid and look in the toolbox: all the same innovative and effective tools are there, just as they were carefully crafted by the European Convention.' Giscard D’Estaing, former French President and Chairman of the Convention which drew up the EU Constitution, The Independent, London, 30 October 2007.