Sir, - Your story (August 5th) on Jean Luc Dehaene's seizure of powers to enforce Maastricht criteria in Belgium is the most chilling example yet of the way in which the EU project undermines the very roots of European democracy. No wonder Conor Cruise O'Brien (On the Eve of the Millennium, New York 1995) worries that the survival of Enlightenment values, including democracy, may not be taken for granted in Europe.
A recent column by Paddy Woodworth, reporting from Spain, was also chilling. A "friend" (!)of Ireland says to him: "You haven't got a state. You have two or three counties - you even haven't got television" (!!) There spoke a man clear sighted enough to know the significance of being a polity which is one per cent of the population of the EU. When present arrangements change, and it is universally acknowledged that they will, we will learn what it is to be one per cent of the decision making process.
But I waste pen and paper. Those who could hear the word "irreversible" as applied to monetary union, and not feel a chill in their spines, are already anaesthetised. What a short step it was from being a sovereign state to being a stock cube in a witches' brew. - Yours, etc.
Derry Lodge, Rosscarbery, Co Cork.