ICTY judge welcomes a referendum

Swedish judge Krister Thelin of the Hague Tribunal, or as it's also called, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, had a nice column in Svenska Dagbladet yesterday. (Pdf in swedish.)

Krister Thelin argues in favour of the Constitution, claims the EU is a peace project, and seems very confident that the Yes-side could win. Basically he says that frienda of the EU should welcome a referendum, regardless of whether they are federalists or not. If there is no referendum in Sweden, that is going to be used as "a weapon in the hands of the blueredgren negativists." Well, he's sure right about that one.

According to Thelin, it was a huge mistake that Sweden ever held a referendum on the EMU, but the EU-Constitution is quite another thing. The fact that the Yes-parties got burned in 2003 is not a good argument not to hold a referendum now. "Lack of faith in their pedagogic ability..." and "the fact that there within the Yes-parties are significant opinons in support of a No, is not a sufficient reason to hide and cover behind the formal representativity of the Riksdag..."

Hear.