Why we must have a referendum on the EU Treaty

Written by Tom Clougherty
Thursday, 18 October 2007
I was on BBC Northampton's lunchtime phone-in show yesterday, to talk about the EU Reform Treaty (i.e. constitution). It was pretty clear from the other calls which way the public was leaning – it is beginning to look like the government are the only ones who don't want a referendum. This is a basic issue of trust. The government promised a referendum in their manifesto, and they should deliver. The fact that it's now called a 'treaty' not a 'referendum' is irrelevant – as Open Europe have pointed out only 10 of the 250 proposals contained in the treaty are different from the ones in the rejected constitution. The 'red lines' the prime minister keeps banging on about also applied to the original constitution – they offer no excuse for not holding a referendum. It's also an issue of principle. If national powers are to be surrendered to the EU then the British people must have the final say. And whatever the government argues, national powers are being surrendered. The new treaty will effectively turn the EU into a superstate, fundamentally altering the UK's relationship with it. The EU will get full legal personality, an elected president, and a foreign minister and diplomatic service. There will be a significant shift away from unanimous voting to qualified majority voting. That means that the EU will be able to take more powers from the UK in future, without us agreeing to it. The government's red lines do not protect the national interest. Even the Labour chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee has said the red lines would "leak like a sieve". The justice and home affairs opt-out is undermined by giving the activist European courts jurisdiction over it. The foreign policy opt-out is subject to so many exceptions that it's virtually meaningless. And the opt-out from the charter of fundamental rights is not legally an opt-out at all, and will likely be ignored by the EU judiciary. We must have a referendum, and we should take the opportunity to vote "no". Bookmark Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment. Powered by Azrul's Jom Comment for Joomla!