Dutchies
Moderators: Jay2k1, DavidM, The_One
That's the main reason I'd vote no.
People do not know the details.
Even though I'm not allowed to vote yet, I'd be very unhappy with the information I was given if I was allowed to vote.
That said, who cares what we voted Rens?
The French voted against the constitution, so it didn't matter anymore.
If one country disagrees, technically (although the referenda aren't 'binding' and the individual countries' governments can still turn down the advice of their citizens), the constitution needs to be revised until all countries vote for it.
People do not know the details.
Even though I'm not allowed to vote yet, I'd be very unhappy with the information I was given if I was allowed to vote.
That said, who cares what we voted Rens?
The French voted against the constitution, so it didn't matter anymore.
If one country disagrees, technically (although the referenda aren't 'binding' and the individual countries' governments can still turn down the advice of their citizens), the constitution needs to be revised until all countries vote for it.
The first booklet or whatever you should call it, was an A2 printed on both sides (so effectively 2 A2s = 16 A5s) of which only one A5 was about the changes by the constitution.
Half of the A5 (about an A6 then =p) was an actual list of things in the constitution, all of which were very basic and obvious (nothing new there).
The second information booklet was a bit better, though it surprised me that a whole page was about reasons to vote for the constitution, but reasons to vote against it where nowhere to be found
wtf?
Anyway, though I fear I might get that wrong because of the lack of information I was given, I don't think a lot will change because of the European Constitution.
It seems to me now like it's just one big document which will contain all EU laws, and only a few new ones.
A ministry of foreign affairs and some other things will be added/changed/removed in the architecture of EU-politics, and there will be rules more strongly enforcing the cliché fight against terrorism, changes I don't think we should have to fear, realistically.
Then again, by voting yes, even though nothing important (to most citizens and non-terrorists) will be added, you are effectively agreeing with the validity of every law ever made by the European Union..and I'm not sure whether I really want that.
There are obviously some errors in them, for example, relatively rich groups of farmers are being subsidized in some provinces of the Netherlands by laws that weren't made for them, and voting 'yes' on the constitution will encourage them not to bother about revising on all those laws.
I fear that most errors, of which there will probably at least be a few, are not very apparent to everyone (not to me anyway!), but might be in the future, if only because juridically, the constitution gives EU laws more weight, and makes them easier for judges to apply.
By then it will be harder to get them to change the laws however, because we will have already explicitally agreed on all of them in the past.
In short: I have no idea what I would have voted ^^;
Half of the A5 (about an A6 then =p) was an actual list of things in the constitution, all of which were very basic and obvious (nothing new there).
The second information booklet was a bit better, though it surprised me that a whole page was about reasons to vote for the constitution, but reasons to vote against it where nowhere to be found
wtf?Anyway, though I fear I might get that wrong because of the lack of information I was given, I don't think a lot will change because of the European Constitution.
It seems to me now like it's just one big document which will contain all EU laws, and only a few new ones.
A ministry of foreign affairs and some other things will be added/changed/removed in the architecture of EU-politics, and there will be rules more strongly enforcing the cliché fight against terrorism, changes I don't think we should have to fear, realistically.
Then again, by voting yes, even though nothing important (to most citizens and non-terrorists) will be added, you are effectively agreeing with the validity of every law ever made by the European Union..and I'm not sure whether I really want that.
There are obviously some errors in them, for example, relatively rich groups of farmers are being subsidized in some provinces of the Netherlands by laws that weren't made for them, and voting 'yes' on the constitution will encourage them not to bother about revising on all those laws.
I fear that most errors, of which there will probably at least be a few, are not very apparent to everyone (not to me anyway!), but might be in the future, if only because juridically, the constitution gives EU laws more weight, and makes them easier for judges to apply.
By then it will be harder to get them to change the laws however, because we will have already explicitally agreed on all of them in the past.
In short: I have no idea what I would have voted ^^;
