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		Open letter to Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament Thursday, 26th March 2009 Dear Mr President You are quoted by EU Observer as saying, with regard to possible delays in Czech ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, that "I cannot imagine that the Czech people, these 10 million people ... are going at the end of the day to stand against the 490 other million citizens of the European Union ... We have a historic responsibility to see this through". This is an outrageous distortion of reality. You know perfectly well that the Treaty does not have the support of "490 million citizens across Europe". You know that if the Treaty were put to a referendum in the member-states it would fail in many of them, as it has already failed in Ireland. In the UK, opinion polls show 70%+ against the Treaty. President Sarkozy is reported as saying the Treaty would fail in France if put to the people. The EU institutions are pressing ahead with Lisbon in defiance of public opinion. They are showing a monstrous contempt for the people and for democratic values, and they are widening the democratic deficit, the yawning gap between the ambitions of the EU élites, and the identity and aspirations of the citizens. Say, if you will, that the Czech Republic is (or may be) standing against 26 other EU governments. But you cannot say that it is standing against 490 million people. Regards ROGER HELMER MEP