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Quote Of The Day
"A low point in the history of European democracy
"He concedes a new framework for Europe's government and then races overnight to the Vatican to consult the Pope. He tosses his seals of office to an acolyte and goes on to the Holy Land to continue his bloodthirsty crusade against the infidel. Is Blair auditioning for Charlemagne?"
- Simon Jenkins on Tony Blair's departure in the Guardian. Jenkins writes on how Britain deserves a referendum on the EU Constitution. Read it all, but some selected quotes come after the break...
"The new treaty signed in Brussels was a clear change in the constitutional relationship between Britain, the other states of Europe and the central authority of the union...
"What was negotiated in Brussels was a new European framework, not a housekeeping measure. It replicates the failed 2004 constitution for the foreseeable future. There is to be a single European president and, de facto, a foreign secretary, with the dignities and authority to speak on Britain's behalf, make treaties, join the United Nations, carry a "legal personality" and have enforcement powers. There is to be a cross-border human rights charter covering labour and social policy from which a British opt-out will be subject to legal challenge.
"Forty areas of regulatory authority are no longer subject to national veto and move to qualified majority voting, including transport, energy, sport and a further range of industry regulation. The new treaty even dilutes the original purpose of the union by dropping from its mission, at France's insistence, a commitment to "undistorted competition", a victory for the corporatist/protectionist Europe much favoured by the Franco-German axis (...)
"Angela Merkel, stated in a letter to her fellow leaders, the treaty is indeed a new version of the 2004 proposal. It incorporates previous treaties plus "the innovations resulting from the 2004 intergovernmental conference". This could not be more explicit. Merkel renamed the constitution a "treaty" only to relieve the leaders of the need to honour the letter of their commitment to referendums (...)
"The new treaty turns the European Union from a ragbag of cross-cutting laws and authorities into one sovereign and legal entity. Matters such as planning, social services and local taxation may be delegated to national assemblies, much as national assemblies delegate them to provincial and local government. But the new fount of power is clearly the centre (...)
"Now to revive it and fob it off as a "tidying-up operation" is mendacious. If the people of Europe are content, let them say so. But to conceal it from them, to pretend that the treaty is not what it is, clearly for fear that they might not like it, marks a low point in the history of European democracy."
