More on the Irish rejecting the EU treaty

I was stunned to read that the EU "is the source of about 85 percent of the new laws passed in Europe every year. . . . " The piece in the International Herald Tribune noted that "many people feel, the Union is remote, undemocratic and ever more inclined to strip its smaller members of the right to make their own laws and decide their own futures." Given the first statement, that seems only natural and well justified. It appears to me that too much is being made of the fact that Ireland is the only country that has rejected the treaty. It seems pretty obvious that other countries have not put the new treaty up for a popular vote precisely because they feared that their voters would defeat the treaty. Indeed, the EU has long ago gone beyond being an organization for allowing free trade and gone on to reducing competition between the countries in the organization. Allowing competition over laws prevents any country from passing laws that can be too harmful.