Learning a lesson from the EU.(THE LAST WORD)(European Union)

Americans can't be warned too often that the path toward cancellation of sovereignty for Europe's 27 nations is the same route being carved out here. Europeans are discovering that they have been duped into accepting what they thought was only a trade pact. But, in reality, the European Union is a super government built to dominate the continent.

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EU leaders produced an EU Constitution in 2004 and sent it the member states for ratification. French and Dutch voters rejected it handily for the solid reason that they didn't want to be ruled by bureaucrats in Brussels. Because the constitution had to be approved by all 27 EU nations, the referenda in France and Holland effectively killed it. Disappointed but far from defeated, EU leaders matter-of-factly continued to tighten the strings over Europe as if nothing had occurred.

Because they want formal approval of their actions, the Eurocrats produced a substitute document and dubbed it a "treaty" instead of a constitution. Signed in Lisbon in December 2007 by the heads of state of the 27 nations, this new Lisbon Treaty must also be ratified by all EU countries in order to gain legitimacy.

Growing numbers of British opponents of the EU eagerly looked forward to a promised referendum about the treaty. However, newly installed Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the nation the promise they had been given referred only to a constitution, not to a treaty. On March 5, the House of Commons supported Brown's highhanded refusal to grant a referendum by a margin of 311 to 248. Many in Britain are outraged.

Ratification of the treaty by national parliaments has already occurred in several EU states. But in Ireland, a referendum is scheduled for June 12. It won't ask directly for approval or disapproval of the Lisbon Treaty, just for a change in the Irish Constitution that would allow the treaty to become superior to Irish law. Campaigns for and against the matter focus not on the treaty itself, but on whether the people are willing to surrender sovereignty.

Stealth has marked every step in the growth of the EU, which in earlier forms was presented as a "free trade" arrangement. Started merely as the six-nation Coal and Steel Commission, it became the European Economic Commission (popularly known as the Common Market), then the European Commission, then the European Union. And stealth is blazingly evident in the promotion of the new Lisbon Treaty. Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing served as the chairman of the ...