Well done France- Allister
30 May 2005
Following the "Non" vote in France at the weekend, DUP MEP Jim Allister today said,
"I greatly welcome the resounding rejection of the EU Constitution by the people of France. This result illustrates how out of touch Governments can be with their people on issues of key national importance. The people of France have shown great courage and insight in refusing to be browbeat into a ‘Yes’ vote by their political elite. The magnitude of this defeat for the Constitution cannot be over-estimated. France has always been one of the most pro-european states in the EU, yet its people could see the necessity to defend national rights and freedoms against further irreversible transfer of power to unelectable Brussels bureaucrats.
Already the excuse-making has started, but the truth is that France rightly rejected the Constitution on its merits. Superstatehood, common foreign policy, diminishing state veto, mere consultation for national parliaments across the great breadth of key issues, an open agenda for enlargement and increasing centralist control, is not a direction that even the French people want to go.
This result throws up a real challenge to the democratic credentials of the political leaders of Europe. Will they accept the result or try to subvert and ignore it. According to its own rules the Constitution should now be dead. It requires ratification by all 25, by the end of this week it is likely to have been rejected by two founding states. It should then be buried, with no attempt to introduce its provisions by the backdoor of treaty changes. If the UK Government does not commit to abandoning not just the Constitution but vetoing Treaty changes to bring in its contents by stealth, then we should still have the right to reject it and all its contents in an early referendum.
This has been a good result for all in Europe who value democracy and national control over national affairs.”
