A New Superpower? Europe Takes a Big Step Forward!
Newspaper headlines on both sides of the Atlantic heralded the Irish ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. "Ireland's Yes vote creates a more powerful Europe," said the Scotland on Sunday. The New York Times headline even contained prophetic overtones: "Gaining a Powerful Presidency, European Union Seeks a Job Description and a Leader." What is the long-term biblical significance?
by John Ross Schroeder
Why do World News and Prophecy and its sister publication The Good News spend so much of their magazine space and journalistic time analyzing current events on the European continent and in the British Isles?
Noted Daily Mail columnist Melanie Phillips helps us explain: "Europe is not some marginal issue that belongs to a discredited and best forgotten past. It is the meta-issue, the one that underpins all other [political] issues. The British people know this. That is why 70 per cent want a referendum on the treaty. It's why no fewer than 40 per cent want to come out of the EU altogether" ("David Cameron and the Spectre of 'President' Blair," Oct. 5, 2009, emphasis added throughout).
About a month ago I journeyed by train and boat from London to Dublin on a church assignment. Boarding a bus from the Dublin docks to a city-center railway station, I noticed prominent posters urging a "yes" vote on just about every block. The advertising campaign has overwhelmed Irish voters. Millions of euros were poured into the "yes" campaign. Substantial concessions to EU law were also granted to the Irish government. Melanie Phillips' frank assessment was: "The Irish people have had their arms twisted to deliver the required 'yes' vote on the EU's constitutional Lisbon treaty" (ibid.).
What happens now?
Only the Czech Republic remained a potential obstacle to complete ratification. Czech President Václav Klaus, after staunch opposition to the Lisbon Treaty, finally signed on Nov. 3. Stated The Wall Street Journal last month: "The European Union's Lisbon Treaty, meant to streamline the bloc's decision making and increase its global clout, has been approved by 27 national parliaments...For it to come into effect, one more man needs to say yes: Czech President Václav Klaus, a committed euroskeptic who so far has refused to sign on" ("A Leader Delaying Lisbon Treaty?" Oct. 19, 2009).
