July 11, 2007 11:35 | by
John Boyd
John Boyd looks at the recent agreement by the European Council
and its implications for democracy in the UK.
Have no illusions. It has been claimed that the recent EU Council
agreed mere amendments to existing EU treaties that require no referendum.
This couldn't be further from the truth.
What is actually happening is a slow coup d'etat of nation states
and democracy in the EU.
In the run-up to the conference, EU president German Chancellor
Angela Merkel devised a strategy to bypass the tricky issue of referendums,
which had defeated a proposed new EU constitution in France and
the Netherlands.
Germany did so with the full complicity of the Blair government
and the European Commission.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett spent two hours stonewalling
at the Commons European scrutiny committee just days before the
EU summit, claiming that no document had been agreed prior to the
European Council in Brussels. So, either Downing Street was not
keeping the Foreign Office informed or it and Beckett were telling
fibs.
Blair went to the conference bearing a set of "red lines."
They were a mere distraction.
The eventual agreement, which basically dropped the words "constitution"
and "foreign minister," together with a few minor elements
of the original text of the rejected EU constitution, will fool
few. Temporarily abandoning symbols such as the EU flag, motto and
anthem means absolutely nothing.
At the summit, large, established EU states used the extra voting
weight handed to them under the qualified majority voting system
to force the "mandate" through.
Poland had strong objections to weakening its share of the vote
in EU decisions, another key result of the summit.
The Czech delegation let it be known that it regarded the intergovernmental
conference as "a fiasco" and confirmed the fears of the
eurosceptic leadership around Czech President Vaclav Klaus. One
member of the Czech delegation stated: "We tried to support
the Poles but, without a partner from one of the larger states,
we were powerless."
The results of the conference have profound implications for the
future of Britain and the right of nation states to self-determination.
The plain objective of the "amending" treaty that it
gave birth to is to give the EU the legal status of a state. If
that is allowed to happen, then we will be ruled by an unaccountable
centralised government in Brussels. Such a eurofederalist government
would have the legal powers to do anything without reference to
national governments, parliaments or electorates.
Otherwise, there is no point in making changes to the current set-up.
The strategy is an undemocratic attempt to avoid referendums across
the EU, especially given the overwhelming democratic results in
France and the Netherlands two years ago.
The coup d'etat still has to run the gauntlet of ratification by
27 member states and, more importantly, mounting opposition across
the EU.
If the EU treaty were put in place, then the EU could sign treaties
in its own right and change what is, in practice, a constitution
without further treaties or ratification.
All democratic forces must join together to demand a fair referendum
and then to campaign for a No vote to defend all aspects of democracy
and future well-being of the peoples of Britain.
John Boyd is secretary of the Campaign Against Eurofederalism
and editor of the Democrat. This article first appeared in the
Morning
Star
see also:
http://www.spectrezine.org/europe/Coughlan3.htm