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Brown's Red Lines...
Here's Gordon Brown on next week's meeting on the EU Reform Treaty, as quoted in The Times: “I am a cautious man and I will wait to see the discussion that takes place in the [European] Council next week before I make a final judgment.”
“But if we achieve our red lines and achieve them in the detail then we would not need to veto the treaty, we would not need to come back and say it was unacceptable.”
Is it just us, or did Brown not fly in to another EU meeting in June to protect Britain's red lines then? And didn't Tony Blair retire claiming to have secured them? And, speaking of Blair, didn't he secure a handful of British red lines on tax, foreign policy and security way back when the first Constitution was negotiated in 2003-2004?
There's something of Groundhog Day about the whole business. Every couple of months, a British leader buggers off to Brussels to defend the Red Lines against EU encroachment.
Every time he returns (minus one or two Red Lines), claiming triumph. Six months later, he's off again to defend the same Red Lines he or his predecessor told us he had secured.
This time, though, there's a possibility Brown won't even have to defend Britain's red line on tax, because he's already given it away. In Alastair Darling's pre-budget speech, Capital Gains Tax was set at a flat rate of 18 percent, which brings it closer to the European average (the previous lowest rate was 10 percent). More details of EU CGT rates here (pdf document).
It's not exactly harmonisation, but removes some of the UK's competitive advantage. Is this some kind of step towards winning Red Lines in other departments?
The EU Referendum Blog reports on how the House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee has had a chance to look at the new Reform Treaty (drafted in French) and noticed several worrying additions to the text:
Chairman Michael Connarty MP says the Committee "found changes to key protocols, which were not present in an interim draft – written in French - which they saw on 17 September and since seem to have been inserted in the final text.
"Nor indeed, writes Connarty in a letter addressed to (foreign secretary) David Miliband, were these provisions in the European Council mandate, the effect of which appear to undermine Britain's "opt-in" to EU criminal justice initiatives. The new text contains reference to sanctions if Britain does not elect to opt-in, which include loss of all measures already agreed.
"Furthermore, there is a very sharp sting in the tail, which threatens "draconian consequences" if Britain does not accept all the new treaty provisions, which include bearing the "direct financial consequences" incurred as a result of its refusal to opt-in.
""The effect of this provision," concludes Connarty, "would seem to be that the UK would not only lose the benefit of all the EU measures so far adopted (such as the European Arrest Warrant), with the consequent disruption to our systems of criminal justice, but might face the risk of incurring a potentially unlimited financial penalty"."
Brown has already said he is prepared to veto or call a referendum on the Reform Treaty if his Red Lines demands are not met. Following a bruising two weeks for the British Prime Minister, it is difficult to see how he could explain away the surrender of more "Red Lines".
