Two speed Europe? "So be it", says Allister
06 June 2007
Speaking in a debate in the European Parliament in advance of the June Heads of Government Summit, where attempts will be made to agree a new Constitutional Treaty, Ulster Eurosceptic MEP, Jim Allister, warned that it was those insisting on a Constitution who were pushing the EU towards a two-speed Europe.
Commenting in Brussels Mr Allister said, "It is imperative that in his last Summit our lame duck Prime Minister does not saddle the UK with a new Treaty, for which he does not have a mandate and which, if permitted, the UK electorate would reject. No European President, no common Foreign and Security policy, with an EU Foreign Minister, and no further surrender of national vetoes by embracing more Qualified Majority Voting, are red line issues which must be preserved."
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
" No, is really not a difficult word to understand.
The continuing failure to accept the political reality of rejection is epitomised by para 3 of this report. There it notes the "concerns" expressed by the French and Dutch people. France and Holland didn't express concern, they expressed rejection. It is the refusal to face that reality which has embedded the EU in the rut of the past two years. This report will do nothing to move us on, because it still insists on everything which has been rejected, namely the apparatus of statehood for the EU and further diminution of national powers and vetoes.
It is those who can't accept that the Constitution has floundered who are pushing towards a two speed Europe. If that is what you must have, then, go for it; just leave those states which still want real national control and power out of it and, even, as a quid pro quo, let us repatriate real powers back from Brussels. Then those who want more Europe can have it and those who want less can have that. But, you can't foist on us all a Constitution, already rejected, however you might disguise and repackage it."
