You are in:
- Archives » 2006 » June 2006
The Big Opt-Out?
Have British Conservatives voted to make "parliamentary sovereignty" a manifesto promise? That's how some Eurosceptic MPs are taking last month's vote on regulatory reform, and an statement slipped into the amendment by veteran Euro-warrior Bill Cash.
According to The Business, Cash may have provoked a party crisis - and soon, possibly, an EU crisis - by making the right to tear up EU treaties Conservative Party policy.
"The text of the amendment called for the government to act “notwithstanding the European Communities Act 1972” – a technical form of words which means unilaterally overriding the EU Treaties which Britain has signed since joining the EU," says the newspaper. The amendment was given official party approval and the support of 100 MPs in parliament, but was defeated in a Commons vote.
That doesn't mean it's dead, however. John Redwood, who chairs the Tories' Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, claims that the amendment signals a "fundamental" change in Britain's relations with Brussels. He and other Eurosceptics in the party are delightedly declaring that if they win the next election, the Conservatives have agreed to dump EU treaties they don't approve of. Dropping out of the hated Common Agricultural Policy would be first on the list, though the EU's Social Chapter, signed by Tony Blair shortly after New Labour came to power in 1997 could be next. By signing the chapter, Blair hoped to signal a closer relationship with Brussels than that enjoyed by his predecessors: Tory plans to consign it to the dustbin send an equally strong signal that Britain would move away from Brussels' influence should the Tories win the next election.
Redwood added that Britain could use the threat of withdrawing from various treaties to leverage a retrospective opt-out from those it opposes.
Though he claims to be loyal to David Cameron, Redwood's claims are going to cause the new leader an enormous headache. While he and his foreign secretary William Hague are struggling to balance the election promise of removing the Conservatives from the clutches of the federalist EPP group in the EU parliament, it seems that his party has unwittingly passed its most Eurosceptic measure yet. No EU nation to date has tried to opt out of treaties (though many have simply ignored obligations they feel unable to fulfil).
It's difficult to imagine a future Conservative government arguing to opt-out of EU charters - and, as any Labour or Liberal government that came after them would no doubt promise to opt straight back into them again, Britain's relationship with Europe would take on an even more farcical aspect.
Despite this, the Tory leadership might adopt part of the amendment's wording in future law. Though it's not recognising the vote (party officials seem somewhat bemused by Redwood's declarations) it might need it in future. As the Business (again) notes in its leader, parliament already has primacy over EU laws, though in practise it delegates laws to the EU and European courts.
However, one of the federalists' most treasured parts of the EU constitution is Article I-6, the part which gives EU law and courts primacy over national law: "the Constitution, and law adopted by the Union’s institutions in exercising competences conferred on it, shall have primacy over the law of the Member States”. If and when a reshuffled constitution is put to governments in 2007-2008, it is certain that this article will remain in place. British courts, needless to say, have explicitly rejected the possibility of parliament signing its authority away to a foreign jurisdiction.
The Business argues that the current government is happy to go along with Article I-6 - after all, Blair signed it - the Tories surely cannot.
If Britain faces a constitutional crisis, it won't be brought on by belligerent anti-EU votes by Tories: Instead, it's likely to be a clash between the current government and the courts over the revived constitution.
