Welcome to the New EU!

December 1, 2009 marked an historic turning point for the European Union and the United Kingdom. On that date the Lisbon Reform Treaty passed into EU law, after finally being accepted by all EU member countries.

The Lisbon Treaty was not precisely a treaty as one might expect, but rather an almost incomprehensible hodgepodge of amendments, additions, and subtractions from previous treaties, consolidated into two foundational documents: the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Why was the treaty's enactment so complicated? What is its background and context—and how is it viewed from London? Most importantly, what is its prophetic significance? The very reason for the treaty lies at the heart of widespread doubts and fears about the true nature of the so-called "EU project." Opinion polls in the UK have consistently shown that a clear majority do not want to be subsumed within a highly bureaucratic federal superstate. Such an emerging power would threaten UK culture, ancient history and values, Common Law traditions and the British way of doing things.

The sad truth, now well documented, is that successive UK governments dating back to the early 1970s, aided by sections of the media, grossly misrepresented what the EU project was all about. They said it was merely an economic union, involving no loss of British sovereignty. All too many Britons see a generation of leaders as guilty of denial, misrepresentation and outright lies in their efforts to lead a sceptical and fiercely independent global player (that had arguably, in many respects, formed the modern world), toward an unwanted destination.

Hidden Constitution for a New EU

These fears were progressively heightened by the nature and provisions of previous treaties that culminated in the contentious 2004 draft Constitutional Treaty, which many Britons opposed because they perceived it as leading directly to a federal superstate. France and Holland for their own reasons rejected the treaty, in their referenda of June 2005, and it never became EU law.

After a two-year hiatus, the German Presidency of the EU reintroduced discussion to find a way to bring the contents of the Constitutional Treaty into law. The result was the so-called Lisbon Treaty, presented not as a constitutional document, but as a tidying-up exercise of the preceding treaties. It was constructed with such mind-boggling complexity that most people, including many politicians, could be forgiven for not reading it and failing to understand what it was all about.

Yet there is no doubt that the Lisbon Treaty contained the provisions of the Constitutional Treaty, which were deliberately disguised so its contents could be smuggled through intact. Indeed, all nine of the essential points of the previous treaty were preserved word-for-word! Consider this blunt appraisal by Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of the convention that drew up the text of the Draft Constitution: "If one looks at the content, the result is that the institutional proposals of the Constitutional Treaty… are found complete in the Treaty of Lisbon, only in a different order, and inserted in the preceding treaties.… In the Treaty of Lisbon, drawn up exclusively from the Constitutional Treaty, the tools are exactly the same. Only the order has been changed in the tool box. The box itself has been redecorated, using an old model, which has three compartments in which you have to rifle around to find what you are looking for" (from an open letter published in Le Monde on October 26, 2007).

Sense of Betrayal

Back in 2005 and under great pressure from media and country, British Prime Minister Tony Blair surprisingly promised a referendum on the EU to the British electorate. But after Gordon Brown succeeded him, the only way to get the Lisbon Treaty accepted was to renege on this promise and pretend that the treaty was not really a constitutional document after all, which would make a referendum unnecessary.

This resulted in a most profound sense of betrayal amongst many of the British; they had not been allowed to express their democratic opinion on EU entry, and with it the very future of their country. Following the adoption of the treaty there is a widespread feeling that the UK has not been told the truth about the EU and its invasive role in UK life. The result is that the UK is now signed up to this important treaty without popular assent.

The EU Project Fulfilled?

Now that it has become law, what effect will the Lisbon Treaty have? On November 19, 2009, in anticipation of the treaty's adoption, the European Council duly fulfilled one of its key provisions by appointing former Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as the first President of the Council, and former EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton—a British peer—as High Representative for Foreign Affairs. Serving for terms of 2½ and 5 years respectively (renewable once), these are in effect the new President and Foreign Minister of the EU.

Another key provision of the treaty unambiguously confers on the EU its own separate (legal) personality. This means that the EU can now become an international actor on the world stage in its own right, separate from and superior to its member states (as constituent countries are now known).

The previous European Community, with its implication of separate countries grouped together, has now ceased to exist and is replaced by the new European Union. This now has primacy of law over member states and inherits the legislative powers formerly given to the Community.

What was a community held together by international agreement has thus become something more like a single state. It has new powers to raise its own separate budget, allowing it to become financially independent from member states. This marks a radical new stage in the process of achieving the EU's aspiration of "ever closer union" among all the peoples of Europe. The EU's purposes, always directed towards social, economic and environmental improvement for Europe, now take on far greater political ambitions, projecting EU power, policies—and especially what it sees as its distinctive values—more decisively onto the world scene.

Now that this landmark development has occurred, we can expect the EU to push harder to consolidate its power—both internally and externally. More power will be taken to the centre, and the strength of constituent states will be eroded further. The Lisbon Treaty allows amendments to its two foundational documents, through which the EU can be expected to evolve relentlessly toward the destination envisaged by its founding fathers—a powerful federal union able to compete confidently on the world stage and project its interests and values. Significantly, no provision in the Lisbon Treaty would prevent the President of the European Commission from also becoming President of the European Council, creating a position of supreme European political power unheard of since the last Holy Roman Emperor!

Prophetic Significance

Looking back over 40 years worth of machinations whilst the EU has come together, few recognize the spiritual significance of these developments. They mark a distinct watershed in the prophesied decline of Britain, and in the inexorable rise of a united Europe—evolving relentlessly to fulfill end-time events as foretold in the book of Revelation. Britain, instead of looking to God to guide the nation (Hosea 8:14), has "hired lovers" (8:9; 7:11), and is slowly being "swallowed up" (8:8) as its former strength is "devoured" (7:8–9; 9:11). The British will come to rue the day their leaders bound the nation to a future beyond their control. Write for our free booklet, The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy, to find out more.