Recast constitution still requires referendum - Allister
23 June 2007
Statement by Jim Allister MEP:
“What has been agreed at the Brussels Summit is in substance the same as the rejected Constitution. The apparatus of statehood for the EU all remains: an EU President, Foreign Minister, supremacy of EU law and, very importantly, a vast tranche of further subjects move from control by national veto to qualified majority voting. This majority voting increase haemorrhages more national control from Westminster to Brussels.
This so-called Reform Treaty is but the Constitution by another name. The name is changed to create the illusion that it is something different; in essence it is the same.
Set the Brussels agreement side by side with the Constitution and the differences are merely marginal. Thus the promise of a referendum still requires to be honoured. This now must become a cross-party demand on behalf of all the British people. Blair wants to deny the people their say because he fears their verdict on what is a bad deal for the UK.”
