Article on EU Reform Treaty by Jim Allister MEP as published in the Orange Standard
19 November 2007
Now that Gordon Brown has foolishly signed up, without a whimper, to the recycled EU Constitution, he must deliver on the Labour Manifesto pledge of a referendum. Make no mistake this “Reform Treaty” is the old Constitution merely by another name. It contains the same legal obligations as the rejected constitution. It involves further massive haemorrhaging of sovereignty to Brussels. Quite apart from establishing the apparatus of statehood for the EU, with a President, Foreign Policy Supremo and legal personality enabling the EU to make international Treaties, it, very significantly, gives up the national veto on dozens of more policy areas.
This is the most far reaching treaty ever. It will transfer 105 new competences from member states to the EU and establish 68 new areas for majority voting where member states vetoes will be abolished. For comparison the Treaty of Rome contained 38 areas for qualified majority vote, the Single European Act on the Internal Market from 1987 contained 12, the Maastricht Treaty 30, the Amsterdam Treaty 24 and the Nice Treaty 46. In addition the new treaty contains a mechanism - Art 33 TEU - for moving further decisions to qualified majority voting, without asking the peoples of Europe. It, therefore, is a charter for rolling centralisation.
As for the UK’s supposed “red lines”, these will degrade to mere pink smudges, soon to be rubbed out by a federalizing European Court of Justice. As a law-making Court the ECJ at every turn strengthens Brussels' control. Blair had opt outs on the last Constitution, they were no more durable or meaningful than what Brown has this time. Opt in, opt out, shake it all about, its still the same old game of building the European Superstate. Just as Brown ran scared from an election, so he is now running scared from letting the British people have their say on this latest ruse to further deplete member states of sovereign power. No election means Labour's 2005 manifesto promise of a referendum must stand. No referendum means no mandate for Brown to proceed to ratification. That is the bottom line upon which all democrats should unite.
The opposing views on this de facto Constitution are rooted in fundamentally divergent views on how we see Europe. If, like me, the Europe in which you believe is one which offers free trade and economic advantage through the cooperation for mutual benefit of sovereign nation states, then you will oppose these changes. If, on the other hand, your vision for Europe is for total political and economic integration, where the nation state is an irritant and obstacle, then you will embrace this Constitution, for it is undoubtedly a vehicle headed in the direction you wish to go, which will steamroller out of existence all vestiges of national sovereignty and statehood.
I unapologetically believe in the sovereignty and supremacy of the nation state, because I believe in national electors being able to control the actions and policies of those who govern them - something which is rooted in the gains of the Glorious Revolution. You can either be governed nationally or internationally through an unaccountable edifice like the European Union.
