Floru 's Blog

OUR POLICY POSITIONS AND PROPOSALS

•Democratic Principles.  It is profoundly undemocratic and arrogant that Labour and the Lib Dems have forced the Lisbon Treaty through Parliament without the British people having any say over it – and after the Republic of Ireland rejected it in a referendum in June 2008. Gordon Brown should either declare this Treaty dead, or call a referendum and let the British people have their say.

•A Referendum on the Renamed EU Constitution. The Lisbon Treaty is in substance essentially the same as the EU Constitution. It should be subject to a referendum of the British people that every major Party promised at the last election. The Conservative Party will fight every inch of the way to secure a referendum. If the Treaty is not in force by the next general election, a Conservative Government would hold a referendum. The Conservative Party would campaign for a ‘no’ vote in a referendum.

•Treaty’s Need for Democratic Legitimacy.  If the Irish are made to vote again on the Lisbon Treaty and bullied into coming to a different decision, if no other country rejects it and if a general election is later rather than sooner so that the Lisbon Treaty is in force before an election is held, the Treaty would still have no democratic legitimacy – the British people would have had no opportunity to have their say on it either in a referendum or at an election. It would also be our view that European integration would have gone too far. Accordingly, that situation would not be acceptable to an incoming Conservative Government and we would not let matters rest there.

•Restoration of National Control over Social and Employment Legislation. The next Conservative Government would seek to move competence back to the United Kingdom on these areas, which would include the restoration of our opt-out from the Social Chapter. Existing Social Chapter legislation that has been enacted into national law would not necessarily be abolished but adapted as a Conservative Government saw fit. The proposed Temporary Workers Directive would have no application in Britain.

•A Referendum on the Transfer of Powers to Brussels.  We will amend the 1972 European Communities Act so that any future EU Treaty that transfers competences from the United Kingdom to the European Union would be subject to a referendum of the British people. It would no longer be possible for Governments to hand over power to the EU without the British people’s explicit permission. Compliance by ministers, as defined in the amendment, would be subject to judicial review. Ultimately, it would not be for Ministers to decide whether a Treaty transferred competences or not.

•A Constitutional Safeguard for British Sovereignty. Given the growth of the EU’s powers, British sovereignty and the ultimate supremacy of Parliament need a constitutional safeguard, but the legal implications of any such provision must be absolutely clear.

•Support for Further Enlargement. We have remained firm in our support for Turkish membership of the EU, when it meets the relevant Copenhagen criteria, including on human rights and economic readiness for the Single Market. We accept that, at the least, transitional measures on the free movement of workers are likely to be needed. We support the ultimate membership ambitions of the Ukraine and those countries in the Western Balkans who aspire to join the EU.

•Priorities for the EU. We support an open, flexible Europe, whose priorities should be what really matter to the peoples of Europe: global competitiveness, global poverty and global warming.

LABOUR’S RECORD

The EU Constitution

•Broken Pledge on EU Referendum.  In their 2005 General Election Manifesto, Labour pledged: ‘We will put it [the EU Constitution] to the British people in a referendum and campaign wholeheartedly for a “Yes” vote’. But now, Labour are refusing the British people a vote on the new EU Treaty which the Spanish Foreign Minister says is 98 per cent the same as the Constitution.

•A Huge Handover of Power to the EU.  The renamed EU Constitution would create a new EU president and foreign minister, with his own diplomatic service, would abolish our veto on criminal justice and give European judges new powers over criminal laws, bring in the damaging Charter of Fundamental Rights through the back door and set up a new ‘ratchet clause’ which would let all of our remaining vetoes, apart from defence, be abolished without the need for a new Treaty.

Giving powers to Brussels

•Asylum Powers Surrendered. Mr Blair promised: ‘we are not giving up the power to set our asylum laws’ (Hansard, 15 December 2003, Col. 1334). But Labour have now given up Britain’s veto over both asylum and immigration policies affecting our country - and the European Commission’s spokesman, Friso Roscam Abbing, has said: ‘There is nothing in these protocols that allows a British government to opt back out again’ (The Daily Telegraph, 25 January 2005).

•Social Chapter Opt-Out Surrendered.  Labour gave up Britain’s opt-out from the costly Social Chapter in 1997. Subsequent EU social chapter legislation includes the Part-time Workers Directive and the European Works Councils Directive, which have cost British business £218, and £134 million, respectively (British Chambers of Commerce, Burdens Barometer 2008).

•Labour’s Rebate Give-Away.  Gordon Brown pledged that the British rebate was ‘justified and non-negotiable’ (BBC1, Breakfast with Frost, 22 May 2005) and said that ‘if we are to make poverty history… Let us seek to make the excesses of the CAP history’ (Labour Party Conference Speech, 26 September 2005). But in December 2005 he agreed to an EU budget deal that cut Britain’s rebate by £7 billion with no guarantee of CAP reform at all.

Europe - The Economic Price

•Business Burdens.  Gordon Brown said ‘it is unacceptable that 50 per cent or more of regulations come from the European Union’ (Minutes of Evidence, European Scrutiny Committee, 20 April 2004). However, the cost to businesses of regulations introduced since 1997 has rocketed by nearly £66 billion, with the EU accounting for 70 per cent (British Chambers of Commerce, Burdens Barometer 2008). At a total cost of £16 billion, EU Working Time regulations are the single most expensive regulatory burden on British business, with a recurring annual cost to the UK of £1.8 billion (ibid.).

Copyright Floru 2007