Should there be a Referendum on the new EU Treaty ?
According to RTE News, Ireland will be holding a referendum on the new EU Treaty.See: http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0623/eu.htmlIreland has a written Constitution and each time there is a new EU constitutional treaty, Ireland holds a referendum.That seems to be pretty sensible and democratic to me.On one occasion, the Irish voted to reject a new EU treaty. So have the Danes, the French and the Dutch. The proposed new EU Constitution was rejected by both the French and the Dutch with the result that EU, under its present German Presidency, has had to replace it by a so-called Treaty which would not have to be subject to a referendum in certain countries such as the UK where it is likely to be rejected.Britain has never held a referendum on the various new EU treaties the British Government has entered into since the EEC was replaced by the EU. Instead successive British Governments has transferred powers to the EU without the consent of the British people and conferred new powers on the EU without the consent of the British people.The new EU Treaty agreed this week by outgoing lame duck Prime Minister Tony Blair is an EU Constitution in all but in name. Mr Blair will be leaving office before the British Parliament will have the opportunity to review or debate or vote on the Treaty so it will be the responsibility of his unelected successor, Gordon Brown, a Scottish MP, who is unelected by and unanswerable to the electorates of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to persuade Parliament to ratify the new Treaty. That doesn't seem very fair or deomocratic to me.In view of the facts that 1.the provisions of the new Treaty were not mentioned in the Labour Party's Manifesto for the last General Election, 2.Mr Blair had promised a Referendum on any new EU Constitution, and3. Mr Blair fought the last General Election on the basis that he would serve a full term, but has reneged on that promise,and he has been replaced by Gordon Brown without an election inside or outside the Labour Party, and without the consent of the British electorate, and 4. The new Treaty fundamentally alters the legal and constitutional relationship between this country and the EU, and5. Creates new posts of EU President and Higher Representative for Foreign Affairs, and6. Creates a new legal identity for the EU whereby the EU and not the UK will represent the people of Britain internationally in many areas of international and internal EU matters, and 7. Removes the British veto in a number of key areassurely the new Treaty should be submitted for ratification by the entire electorate of the United Kingdom in the same way as the Irish will have the opportunity to ratify or reject it ?
David Giles ● 6552d19 Comments