Constitution approved by the EU Parliament

I'm almost a week late, but I still have to mention that the EU Constitution was approved by the EU Parliament on Jan. 12. As ABC News reports it:

The EU legislature voted 500 to 137 for a resolution backing the constitutional treaty, with 40 abstentions.

This vote is non binding, but I find it pretty interesting. We got to see what people elected by Euro citizens (really, our delegates) thought of the text (a big YES), and it was also a window on which countries needed to be closely watched in the coming months. The main EU-wide blocs had asked national parties to approve the text. Yet:

Britain's opposition Conservatives, who belong to the center-right European People's Party, the largest bloc in parliament, broke ranks with their group and voted "no," while Poland's center-right Civic Platform abstained.

Well, not surprisingly the British Conservatives voted No. I am sure some were truthfully against it, but I also wonder whether some have not become knee-jerk euroseptics (and it might also be populist popular to vilify the EU in the UK, especially if you're desperate to get votes)

A dozen French Socialists close to former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius broke ranks with the Socialist group and abstained after losing an internal referendum of party members which backed the EU constitution last month.

Interesting. The socialist militants voted on the text, they approved it, and yet all their elected representative are not willing to carry out their opinion. I agree that an EMP can vote according to her/his political beliefs, but then, it was just not worth asking militants their opinion. And also, let's forget about our friends from the extremes, with a behavior more relevant than ever:

Communists and the far left rejected the constitution as a global capitalist charter without adequate social protection. (...) A few dozen far-right and nationalist lawmakers jeered and waved banners proclaiming "Not in my name" just before the vote.

Comments

[EU Serf]

Far Right????

Whats Facist about not wanting ones country to disappear?

[Robin]

Why do you want to "closely watch" some countries?
I see you also dont like populists;ie democracy cant be trusted.

[Karen]

This was good. Also that you guys should write more than it would be more itresting. Other than that it was good.