| How do you push through a hated constitution that you know will be defeated in a referendum? Simple: call it a treaty, and declare that it doesn't need a referendum... |
Same constitution as before : so we want a referendum, as before
WORKERS, JULY 2007 ISSUE
German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted what she calls a "new foundation treaty" – this is definitely "not the EU Constitution". Now, thanks to Blair, she has it.
As Merkel explained before the crucial negotiations, she aimed "to use different terminology without changing the legal substance". So that's alright then. Blair was clear in his treachery: he said on 20 June that the Constitution rejected by the French and the Dutch was a "perfectly good one".
Brown says no to referendum
What were the EU's leaders proposing with the original Constitution? A new, more powerful, full-time EU Presidency; a new post of EU Foreign Minister with a new 'external action service'; a new voting system which would reduce our ability to block new EU laws by 30%; and new powers to impose EU laws in 40 new areas – nothing to worry about, only in trivial areas like foreign policy, criminal justice and any measure that they can bill as addressing climate change.
What have they ended up with? Precisely what they wanted in the first place. Quoted on BBC News Online, writer on European affairs Kirsty Hughes, a firm believer in European integration, said: "It's much worse than the usual European stitch-up. It's essentially the same as the constitution, but many leaders are trying to sell it as something different, in order to avoid a vote. It's a collective lie."
The report continued: "Both critics and supporters of the project agree that 95%, or even 99%, of the impact of the constitution has been preserved." Yet Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, interviewed by the BBC straight after the deal, maintained that there was no need for a referendum – even though powers are to be transferred from Britain to the European Union. Is she clueless or lying?
Germany calling: Chancellor Angela Merkel flanked by German Foreign Minister Wilhelm Steinmeier and Commission President José Manuel Barroso. With Blair's help, they have the result they want. But their satisfaction may be short lived.
Gordon Brown even ruled out a referendum the day before the deal had been completed. Yet Ireland will hold a referendum, and probably Denmark as well. The issue of whether the Netherlands should have another referendum – they rejected the original constitution in a referendum vote – is now before the Dutch courts.
The new EU Foreign Minister will "automatically" speak for Britain at the UN. What kind of an organisation has a Foreign Minister anyway? Does a common market need a Foreign Minister? If Alex Salmond appointed a Scottish Foreign Minister, wouldn't that be a huge step towards breaking Britain up into little statelets, all dependent on the EU?
The FT/Harris Poll published on 18 June shows that 75 per cent of Spaniards, 71 per cent of Germans, 69 per cent of Britons, 68 per cent of Italians and 64 per cent of French people want a referendum on the Treaty, opposing their governments' intent to put it to parliaments for ratification. A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times found that 70 per cent of British voters think there should be a referendum on the Treaty, while 17 per cent think it should be ratified in Parliament.
What is the official EU response to what we think? You guessed it: EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso said he hoped that Blair would "have the courage" to sign up to the Treaty. Barroso said, "We have to stand up in front of our national public opinions, not give up to some of the populisms we have in our member states." Bye-bye democracy!
It gets worse. The Italian President, Giorgio Napolitano, says that opponents of the EU Constitution are indulging in "psychological terrorism". So we're all terrorists now!
Taking over states
The EU is not about cooperation but about merger. As Jean Monnet, founder of the EU, said long ago, "Cooperation is all very well, but what we require is a fusion of states." Siren calls to stay in the EU and reform it, to make it more democratic and restore powers to national governments, are as delusional as the Labour left's belief that they can change the Labour Party into a socialist party.
The Constitution's main author, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, described the proposed Treaty as "a simplified treaty preserving the essential institutional advances". He wrote in Le Monde, "The most innovative elements [in the new Treaty] will ... be regrouped into a bland and painless treaty ... Thus public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly." He admitted that the EU's leaders were "camouflaging" the truth about the Treaty but warned that this attempt at deception would not work: "it will reinforce the idea among European citizens that European construction is organised behind their backs by judges and diplomats." Surely not!
• Held while Blair was negotiating away Britain's rights in Germany, the Unison annual national delegate conference in Brighton reiterated its opposition to the EU constitution.
Unison, with 1.3 million members, opposes the enforced sell-off of schools and hospitals. It doesn't want Europe being a borderless blueprint for privatisation driven by Germany's Merkel or France's Sarkozy. It is against EU laws overturning national decisions on what the people of Britain want, as opposed to the dictat of European bankers and multinationals.
There is opposition, too, to the European Court of Justice deeming national laws of nation states illegal.