National Soverrignty or Brussels Bureaucracy

22 April 2004

Speaking today DUP Euro candidate Jim Allister QC said, “True to form the Government is already putting a misleading spin on the new European Constitution.  It misrepresents it as mere tidying up which is essential to cope with a 25 member EU.  Such is simply not true.  Whether the EU consists of 15 or 25 states, its framework and operation can be adequately provided for by Treaties endorsed by all the member governments.  This has been the modus operandi for nigh 40 years.

A Europe of co-operating nation states does not require a Constitution, a Europe designed to become a super-state, does.  This is the real purpose of the new Constitution.  It is a blueprint for ever increasing political integration.  Hence its provisions for:

• A President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, with a ministry which “shall conduct the Union’s common foreign and security policy”;
• Giving primacy to EU law over national law;
• Its acquisition of a legal personality allowing it to enter treaties and agreements on behalf of all member states;
• Its prohibition on national parliaments legislating in certain areas;
• Its effective abolition of the national veto, so that a nation’s objections can be overridden.

It is therefore grossly dishonest for anyone to misrepresent what is proposed as mere consolidation of existing provisions.  The truth is that the new constitution fundamentally alters the relationship between Europe and the member states.  The way in which we are governed is to be irrevocably changed.  National sovereignty is sacrificed in favour of centralised bureaucracy.”

EU Constitution