TJ (4 Dec 2007)
"PEACE TALKS DEC 12     REVIVED ROME DECEMBER 13"

 
On December 12 the steering committe meets on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.  December 12 is the first official day of final status talks.  http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/02/content_7185549.htm

On December 13 The European Union signs the Reform Treaty/ A.K.A. EU Constitution in disguise.


Final Status talks between the Israeli and Palestinians (maybe also on the Syrian and Lebanon tracks as well)  are to conclude by January 2009. 

By December of 2008  All the 27 members of the EU are to ratify the Reform Treaty.


Its suppose to come into effect by January of 2009. Elections are to be held June of 2009.

By the the time the peace talks conclude Europe will be united and Rome Revived. 



The Reform Treaty (also called the Lisbon Treaty) will enhance the European Union’s capacity to act, especially in view of new global challenges – and issues which matter to citizens – such as climate change, energy security, international terrorism, organised cross-border crime, immigration, further enlargement.
The Reform Treaty will also increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision-making mechanisms, improve the democratic accountability and rule of law.
Even if it no longer presents constitutional characteristics, it preserves the most important successes of the Constitution (with some substantial exceptions for the UK and some other member states):
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 Giscard spills the beans: EU treaty is constitution in disguise

Mr Giscard d'Estaing - who helped to draft the constitution rejected in referendums in France and Holland in 2005 - told France's Le Monde newspaper: "The institutional proposals of the constitutional treaty are found complete in the Lisbon Treaty, only in a different order and inserted in former treaties.
"Above all, it is to avoid having referendums thanks to the fact that the articles are spread out and constitutional vocabulary has been removed."
He added: "The proposals in the original constitutional treaty are practically unchanged. . .
"Just 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: a stable presidency, a streamlined Commission, a Parliament with genuine legislative rights, a Foreign Minister, even if he has been given another, inadequate title . . . and the most advanced charter of fundamental rights in the world."
Most controversially, he concludes: "When the day comes that men and women with sweeping ambitions for Europe decide to make use of this treaty, they will be able to rekindle from the ashes of today the flame of a United Europe."
Shadow Europe Minister Mark Francois said: "This admission really lets the cat out of the bag.
"The man who chaired the body which drafted the original EU Constitution has now confessed that its revived version was deliberately drafted to try to avoid the people of Europe having their say on it."
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European Union leaders voiced relief at clinching a deal on Friday on a treaty to reform the 27-nation bloc's institutions, replacing a defunct constitution and ending a two-year crisis of confidence in Europe's future.
"It's an important page in the history of Europe. Europe is now stronger, more confident and ready to face the challenges in the future," Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates said after brokering agreement at an EU summit.
Provided it is ratified by all 27 member states, the treaty will take effect in 2009 giving the EU a long-term president, a more powerful foreign policy chief, more democratic decision making and more say for the European and national parliaments.
The more modest treaty is not styled a constitution and omits any mention of an EU anthem or flag, but it retains all the key reforms in the original charter.
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New impetus
In 2007, Germany took over the rotating EU Presidency and declared the period of reflection over. By March, the 50th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, the Berlin Declaration was adopted by all member states. This declaration outlined the intention of all member states to agree on a new treaty in time for the 2009 Parliamentary elections, that is to have a ratified treaty before mid-2009.[2]
Already before the Berlin Declaration, the Amato Group (officially the Action Committee for European Democracy, ACED) – a group of European politicians, backed by the Barroso Commission with two representatives in the group – worked unofficially on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (EU Constitution). On 4 June 2007 the group released their text in French – cut from 63,000 words in 448 articles in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe to 12,800 in 70 articles. In the Berlin Declaration, the EU leaders unofficially set a new timeline for the new treaty;
   
European Council meeting in Brussels, mandate for IGC
launch of Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) in Lisbon, text of Reform Treaty
Foreign Ministers’ meeting
European Council in Lisbon, final agreement on Reform Treaty
signing of the treaty in Lisbon
by end of 2008
ratification by all member states
entry into force
 
Almost all of the proposals contained in the Constitutional Treaty relating to the EU's external actions are reflected in the Lisbon Treaty, and therefore the analysis contained in this website continues to be relevant. However, thee have been some changes in texts and the article numbers have changed. We are therefore updating these references so that the information in this site will be be applicable to the Lisbon Treaty. This updating will be done over the next four to six weeks so that by the time the Lisbon Treaty is signed on 13 December the information contained in the pages of this site will relate to the Lisbon Treaty.
European Commission President Barroso described the deal reached as a success that most people had thought unthinkable just some months ago or even days ago. "The goal for the summit was to reach a mandate for an institutional settlement. We have reached it. […] This shows that Europe is on the move in the right direction. Reaching agreement was a credibility test for the Union. This Reform Treaty provides the Union with the capacity to act," he said.
German Chancellor and Council President Angela Merkel said the new treaty represented a significant step forward for the European Union, increasing Europe's capacity to speak with one voice.
October 22, 2007
Britain Must Reject the New EU Reform Treaty
by Nile Gardiner, Ph.D. and Sally McNamara
WebMemo #1672
European Union leaders unanimously agreed in Lisbon last week to move forward with a new "reform treaty" to replace the former EU Constitution. The treaty, expected to be formally signed by all EU member states at a summit in Brussels in December, is almost identical to the Constitution that was emphatically rejected by voters in France and Holland in 2005.
Like the rejected Constitution, the reform treaty is a blueprint for a European superstate dreamt up by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. This time around, however, most of Europe doesn't get to vote—democracy is too dangerous a concept for the architects of this grand vision of an EU superpower. So far, only the Irish government has been brave enough to stand up to Brussels and insist on a popular vote by its citizens.
The new treaty poses the greatest threat to national sovereignty in Europe since the Second World War. It will also threaten the future of the Anglo-American Special Relationship and significantly weaken the transatlantic alliance. The British Government must listen to the growing calls in Britain for a referendum on the treaty and allow the public to vote on an agreement that will dramatically undermine the U.K.'s ability to shape her own destiny.
A Blueprint for a European Superstate
Originally envisioned as a single market within Europe, the European Union (formerly the European Economic Community) is morphing into a gigantic political entity with ambitions of becoming the world's first supranational superstate. Already major strides have been made in the development of a unified European foreign and defence policy as well as a supranational legal structure, and with the introduction of the Euro in 1999, the European single currency and European Central Bank became a reality.
The European Constitution, drafted in 2004, was a huge step forward in the evolution of what is commonly known as the "European Project" or the drive towards "ever closer union." With its 448 articles, the Constitution was a vast vanity project conceived in Paris, Berlin, and Brussels that dramatically failed two years ago. Since then, European Union apparatchiks have worked feverishly to resurrect the Constitution and have come up with the kind of cosmetic makeover that a plastic surgeon would be proud of.
All the main elements of the Constitution are repackaged in the new treaty. According to the European Scrutiny Committee, a British parliamentary body, only two of the treaty's 440 provisions were not contained in the original constitution.[1] The treaty paves the way for the creation of a European Union foreign minister (High Representative) at the head of an EU foreign service with its own diplomatic corps, as well as a long-term EU president, both trappings of a state. As Daniel Hannan, a European MEP has pointed out, the treaty will further erode the legal sovereignty of European nation states, entrenching a pan-European magistracy ("Eurojust"), a European Public Prosecutor, a federal EU police force ("Europol") and an EU criminal code ("corpus juris").[2] In addition, countries such as Britain will sacrifice their veto right over EU decision-making in 40 policy areas.