Yes!
Doesn’t the treaty have to be ratified by the countries involved?
Yes it does. However, except for Ireland where the constitution demands a referendum in all other countries the politicians are doing their utmost to aviod referenda. The treaty is a treaty for the politicians not for the people(s). Therefore, as long as most parties, and especially the big parties are for the treaty and against referendum it will be almost impossible to stop the passing of the ratification in the various parliaments.
If Ireland turns down the EU Constitution would that end the process or would that only isolate Ireland?
In principle an Irish no would stop the process. However, in the EU a no is never a no. In all likelihood they will be asked to vote again, and to vote "right" next time around.
Democracy? No way - what we are seeing is a slow motion coup d'êtat.
LOL ScaniaBoy, the same thing happened in the US’s “ratification” of our “Constitution” there was a Convention called and manned by people who just said “we’re delegates from our States..let’s write something and vote on it”
There was no referendum, only votes in the State’s Congresses.
Sounds familiar, too bad we didn’t copyright and patent how to run a Coup by ballot and closed vote...
Yes it does. However, except for Ireland where the constitution demands a referendum in all other countries the politicians are doing their utmost to aviod referenda. The treaty is a treaty for the politicians not for the people(s). Therefore, as long as most parties, and especially the big parties are for the treaty and against referendum it will be almost impossible to stop the passing of the ratification in the various parliaments.
Okay, forgive me for a being a little slow here, but I need to clearly understand. When the EU Constitution was voted on the first time, first the Dutch dumped it, and then Chirac was humiliated when the French public also voted it down. And the vote has to be unanimous among all the EU member countries, right? So how can the various parliaments simply pass over another public vote, and just dictate their own desired results? Won't at least a few EU countries have non-brain dead populations that will insist on a public vote?