Here’s a selection of what the proponents of Lisbon had to say about its purpose when they thought we weren’t listening:

Democracy

“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.”
Former French President V. Gisard D’Estaing, who headed the drafting of the EU Constitution which the French and the Dutch rejected in their 2005 referendums, and which is now being implemented through the Lisbon Treaty.
Le Monde, 14 July, 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, Flanders Info, 23. June 2007

“90% is still there … these changes haven’t made any dramatic Change to the substance of what was agreed back in 2004.”
Bertie Ahern, Irish Independent, 24 June, 2007

“The good thing about not calling it a constitution is that no one can ask for a referendum on it.”  [Or so he thought.]
Guiliano Amato, Italian Prime Minster, later vice president of the EU Convention which drafted the Constitution. Speech at London School of Economics, 21 February, 2007

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Sovereignty
“In Europe one needs to act ‘as if’ – as if what was wanted was little in order to obtain much; as if states were to remain sovereign to convince them to concede sovereignty … the Commission in Brussels for example, should act as if it were a technical instrument, in order to be able to be treated as a government. And so on by disguise and subterfuge.”
Guiliano Amato, La Stampa, 13 July, 2000

“Of course there will be transfer of sovereignty, But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact.”
Jean Clause Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg

“There is no longer the question of saying that are certain things that the Union can’t touch. Actually, the Union can touch everything.”
Gisela Stuart, British Labour MP who helped draft the EU Constitution, comment on Lisbon Treaty 18 January, 2007

The constitution is a milestone. Yes, it is more than that. I think the EU Constitution is the birth of the United states of Europe.”
Hans-Martin Bury, German Minister for Europe, Die Welt, 24 February, 2007

“Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a  creation of the organisation of an empire.”
J-M Barroso, EU Commission President, The Brussels Journal, 11 July, 2007

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Neutrality
“The Commission has the legal basis for a future European Army.”
Dominique Strauss Kahn, former French Finance Minster, Oui Lettre ouverte aux enfants de l’Europe,’ Oct 2004

“I am sure that in the medium term we will have a European Army finaced by the EU budget.”
Wilhelm Schoenfelder, German Ambassador to the EU, Handelsblatt, 19 April 2007

“Our traditional concept of self-defence was based on the threat of invasion. With the new threats, the first line of defence will often be abroad.We should be ready to act before a crisis occurs.”
Javier Solana, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, in a ‘Secure Europe in a Better World’, endorsed by the EU in December 2003.

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