Belfast Telegraph article 14 December 2007

Brown facing ticking time bomb on Europe

Friday, December 14, 2007

By Eric Waugh

Gordon Brown got to Lisbon - just. His complex choreography was carefully designed to convey the message to the electorate that he was dragged there. No wonder. At the last count (the EU's own), British support for UK membership of the European Union was shown to have sunk to an unimpressive 39%.

Such scepticism is the EU's own doing. The European idea, a noble concept which arose from the ashes of war, has gone badly wrong, victim of the Napoleonic ambitions of little men. Their Lisbon treaty is so unpopular that those signing it yesterday dared not ask their electorates at home to vote on it.

The Irish will do so - because, to Bertie Ahern's dismay, he finds that, constitutionally, they are obliged to. Only last month, Nicolas Sarkozy told a closed meeting of Euro MPs he could not win a referendum in France, nor, he said, could Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Great Britain. This is because the people are not ready to abandon the nation state.

They accept the enlightened European vision of co-operative endeavour: but to European Government, they firmly say 'No'. When faced with this challenge, the resolve at the top of the EU is that the will of the people must be ignored, thus displaying the absolutist cast of mind which is at the core of their sickness.

In the collision, the most sensitive victim is the UK. The citizens of Athens may have invented democracy, but it was the English who adapted it as a workable system in a modern civilisation. In Britain the smooth evolution of that democracy has not been interrupted for the best part of four centuries. But such continuity is unknown elsewhere in the EU.

Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, is a former Secretary for Agitation and Propaganda in Free German Youth, the young communists' organisation in East Germany - and she remained an activist in the Communist Party until the Berlin wall came down in 1989. Italian democracy dates only from Mussolini's demise and the end of the Second World War. The current complexion of Italian society is indicated by the status of the mafia as the nation's largest industry, the revenues from its gangsterism representing 7% of Italy's GDP.

Posted 18 October 2007 Bruges Group

Bruges Group press release

Immigration, Asylum and the Revived EU Constitution

Robert Oulds 

PRESS RELEASE

New EU Constitution Threat to UK Border Control
More breaches of the Government’s Red Lines

The Bruges Group has uncovered that the revived and renamed EU Constitution will blow a hole wide open in Britain’s borders allowing the EU to take full control over Britain’s asylum and immigration policies.

The Treaty that Gordon Brown is expected to sign Britain up to next week includes new provisions; these will impose upon the UK the duty to be:
“fair towards third-country nationals”.
'Fairness' is subjective. This will allow the European Court of Justice to rule that an Australian style quota policy cannot be used to restrict immigration.

There will also be more costs placed on the taxpayer. The asylum provisions contain a solidarity clause. Under Article 69 c there will be increased demands on the taxpayer as Britain will be expected to share the financial burden of immigration. This will lead to Britain supporting asylum seekers in EU states that have a lower GDP than the UK.

EU expert Dr Lee Rotherham says,

“Once again, the renamed EU Constitution proves to be a Trojan Horse. Now we find that our ability to get a grip on asylum and immigration issues is under threat - our opt out is dangerously undermined.

“When we pick at the details the Government’s case for downplaying the text endlessly unravels. We must have a referendum.”

How the EU’s immigration plans affect the Red Lines

+
Full Bruges Group article
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09 October 2007 AOL

AOL article

New referendum calls over EU treaty

There have been renewed calls for a referendum on the proposed European Union Reform Treaty, after a committee of MPs found it was "substantially equivalent" to the Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters.

The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee said it was "likely to be misleading" for the Government to claim that the treaty no longer had the characteristics of a constitution. And it warned that the special UK opt-outs and protocols secured by the Government to protect its so-called "red lines" may not prove effective in practice.

The committee also criticised the "secretive" process by which the draft of the new treaty - due to be signed by EU heads of government in Portuguese capital Lisbon at the conclusion of an Intergovernmental Committee (IGC) later this month - was compiled.

And it warned that a requirement for national parliaments to contribute to "the good functioning of the Union" may contradict Britain's 1688 Bill of Rights, which protects the Westminster Parliament from being placed under legal obligations by any outside body.

The provision raised "a serious difficulty of a constitutional order", said the committee in a report. "In our view, the imposition of such a legal duty on the Parliament of this country is objectionable as a matter of principle and must be resisted."

The report, entitled European Union Intergovernmental Conference, said that claims the new treaty no longer had the characteristics of a constitution were "less than helpful". They were "likely to be misleading", as they might suggest that the Reform Treaty is less significant than the Constitution, and it was down to the Government to supply evidence to support its assertion.+

Full AOL article
Full report
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 08 September 2007: Daily Mail 08 September 2007

Daily Mail article 

Eurocrats' 120 miles of red tape

Last updated at 22:07pm on 2nd February 2007 

The growing burden of European red tape was laid bare yesterday with the revelation that Brussels has produced 120 miles of legislation since the EU was set up.

A study by the Open Europe think has found that Brussels bureaucrats have produced so many laws - many of them completely unnecessary - that the paperwork weighs more than a tonne, the same as a whale or rhinocerous.

More Here...
• Cameron attacks EU's 'culture of hopelessness'

If all the legislation the EU has passed was laid out lengthways it would be over 120 miles long. Along the M1 it would stretch from London past Nottingham.

The group detailed examples of absurd and costly laws which they say should never have been passed, including directives on the use of ladders, condoms and Wellington boots.

Their report found that a huge increase in the amount of legislation passed by Brussels in the last 10 years means that there are now twice as many pages of laws in force as European officials have claimed.

Commission spokesmen have always said that there are 80,000 pages of rules which European companies, charities and individuals have to comply with.

But by totalling up pages in the many volumes of the EU's Official Journal of legislation Open Europe found that the EU has passed a staggering 666,879 pages of laws since its inception in 1957.

The report says: "From the EU's legislative database we were able to establish that 26 per cent of all EU regulations passed since 1957 are still active. So we calculate that there are 170,000 pages of EU legislation currently in force."

Of these 170,000 pages, over 100,000 have been produced in the last ten years. If the EU continues to legislate at the current rate, the amount of legislation in force will have more than doubled by 2020 to 351,000 pages.

Even if you include only the legislation currently in force, at 31.7 miles it stretches further than a marathon and would take the average person more than four hours to run along.

While the weight of the entire Official Journal is over a tonne, the total weight of the parts of the Official Journal that are currently in force is 285 kg.

If the laws passed by Brussels were piled up, they would stand higher than Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square.

Open Europe condemned some of the most absurd and costly EU laws, including the noise at work directive, which forced teachers to assess how noisy school children can be, and the Working at Height Directive, which means that a ladder can only be used if a risk assessment considers it to be so low risk that an alternative is not suitable.

The rule forced one priest to pay an expert £1,300 to change a lighbulb in his church.

Full Daily Mail article 

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05 September 2007 BBC

BBC article
 

EU spurns MEP plea on liquids ban

The European Commission has rejected a call by the European Parliament to review restrictions on taking liquids on board aeroplanes.

It said the restrictions could not be relaxed if there was still a threat that liquid explosives would be used for terror attacks on planes.

Earlier the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling on the EC to review the regulation.

It said the security benefits may not justify the cost of the ban.

"The understanding and the readiness with which the vast majority of our citizens have accepted this measure and the inconvenience it brings are the best proof that they consider it to be adequate and necessary," EU Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot said.

He added "Europe must not show any sign of weakness" in the face of terrorist threats.

"It must not lower its guard but on the contrary reinforce its vigilance and maintain the full range of prevention instruments it has adopted," Mr Barrot said in a statement.

His comments come on the day Germany announced it had foiled a major terrorist plot against US targets in the country.

Advisory

The parliamentary resolution calls for the ban on passengers taking liquids on planes in containers of less than 100ml to be lifted.

BBC article

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05 September 2007 Daily Mail

Telegraph article

EU referendum campaign by cross-party MPs

By Toby Helm, Chief Political Correspondent

Last Updated: 7:53am BST 06/09/2007

Demands for Gordon Brown to grant the British people a say on the EU reform treaty will reach new heights today when a powerful, cross-party group of MPs launches a nationwide campaign for a referendum.

·  Sign the Telegraph EU referendum petition

·  Use our letter to write to your MP

The move by senior MPs from the three main parties is evidence that pressure for a national vote comes from all sides of the political spectrum - and includes prominent pro-Europeans as well as Euro-sceptics.

With Labour MPs who back a referendum claiming to have the private support of 120 of their parliamentary colleagues and most of the 195 Tory MPs backing a national vote, about half of the House of Commons is now sympathetic to a national poll.

The group of Labour, Tory and Liberal Democrat politicians will stage their launch outside the Commons, unveiling a giant ballot box to symbolise the right of Britons to have a say on issues affecting the future governance of their country.

Their plans were announced as the number of people backing The Daily Telegraph's "let the people decide" petition in favour of a referendum passed 84,000. 

Over the next few weeks, the MPs will take their campaign entitled "I want a referendum" to all the main party conferences, gathering signatures from supporters of all parties - and mobilizing public opinion via a website that goes online today. Advertisements will be shown in cinemas.

In a move that will maximise Mr Brown's difficulties on his first appearance at the TUC as Prime Minister next week, the MPs will stage a rally at the congress in Brighton where Mr Brown will speak on Monday.

Several of the biggest unions threaten to ambush Mr Brown on the conference floor over his refusal to grant a referendum.

Gisela Stuart, a former Labour minister who helped negotiate the Constitutional Treaty in 2004, said the campaign - which she helped establish - would show that those supporting a vote "are not just a little band of Euro-sceptics".

She added: "What we will show is that this is nothing to do with factional party politics. Many of us believe in the merits of co-operation between states in a European Union on matters where it is best to look for pan-European solutions. But we can only build that kind of Europe if we have the consent of the people."+

Full Telegraph article

BBC 13 December 2007
Brown belatedly signs EU treaty
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has belatedly signed the EU reform treaty, having missed a ceremony attended by leaders of the 26 other member states.
Full BBC story
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 03 September 2007 Telegraph

 Telegraph article

European mayhem as Treaty triggers UK's exit

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Last Updated: 11:20am BST 03/09/2007

For this we can thank those who recklessly - or mischievously - chose to revive the European Constitution after rejection by the French and Dutch people, when common sense urged Brussels to lie low, lick its wounds, and rediscover patience.

By reopening this can of worms, they have already let France's Nicolas Sarkozy excise the clause "free and undistorted competition" from the core objectives of the Union. Adieu to the single market, the one incontrovertible benefit of EU membership.

It would never have been easy to win a British referendum on the original (better) text, which furnishes the EU with the apparatus of a thrusting state - president, foreign minister, justice department, supreme court, energy tsar, and treaty-making powers. It will be much harder now.

Gordon Brown's plan to slip it through Parliament is becoming untenable in the face of a backbench revolt by Labour MPs, a united Tory opposition, and likely calls for a vote by the Liberal Democrats.

As David Blunkett said last week, Downing Street has failed to justify why Labour is violating its manifesto pledge to hold a referendum. "It is critical for the Government to demonstrate the difference between the original constitutional treaty and the current treaty," he said.

Well, yes, and how is this to be done when Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the author, himself says the changes are "more cosmetic than real", that "the substance is similar or even the same," and that the label constitution has been dropped to "make a few people happy"?

Should Gordon Brown persist with this charade, he will be chased out of Downing Street within two years. British debt deflation is not going to leave him much margin of popularity in any case.

Personally, I might have put a clothes peg on my nose and voted for the original treaty, if the other big states had already said "Yes", and if an isolated British "No" risked UK secession.

It would have been a Realpolitik calculus, hoping that a blocking majority of liberal nations would eviscerate the treaty's effects.

Britain had by then achieved its goal of extending the EU to Eastern Europe, breaking the Rhineland lock-hold that has caused so much grief. A British-led constellation of states had begun to emerge - much to the annoyance of Paris.

The Commission's teeth arms - competition, single market, trade, and farming - had become engines of Anglo-Saxon reform. The European Court was finally shedding its crypto-Hegelian bias as liberal judges swamped the bench.

Having waited so long, and endured such provocation from the Delors junta, it would have been precipitous to leave just as the bargain promised more advantage.

But that was then, before the "No" earthquakes. The dispute is no longer over the meaning of treaty articles. The issue is whether we wish to let the EU ram through the same project - stripped of its anthem and visible symbols of statehood - after voters have already issued their thundering prohibition.

The matter has escalated into a defence of democracy against an enterprise that has slipped its leash, demonstrated a dangerous will to accrete power, and forfeited basic trust - as Tony Blair well knows.

"What you cannot do is have a situation where you get a rejection of the treaty and bring it back with a few amendments and say, 'have another go'. You cannot do that," he said in April 2004.

It is unlikely that British voters can be cajoled into endorsing this Putsch, once debate is joined. No doubt Labour will attempt to turn any referendum into a ballot on EU withdrawal, hoping to scare enough fence-sitters into a reluctant "Yes". But this merely ups the ante. So we await the unstoppable slide into crisis.

Hopes that the French people will rescue us a second time are fading. Mr Sarkozy has a crushing majority in parliament, and is better able to duck a referendum than Mr Brown.

His European theatrics have created the impression of restored French primacy in Brussels, dulling the mood of indignation. The Left - the nucleus of the "No" vote - is in disarray.

Holland remains eerily silent, watching us. No doubt, there are strong factions in Paris, Brussels, and Luxembourg that would like to see the back of Les Rosbifs, and anti-American elements close to power in Madrid and Rome who agree.+

Full Telegraph article
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02 September 2007 Sunday Times

Sunday Times article
 

02 September 2007

The Sunday Times

September 2, 2007

It’s cool to be Eurosceptic

...

According to Georgiana Bristol, 25, co-organiser of the I Want A Referendum campaign party, “Ours is the generation who will be affected by all this after all the crusty old politicians who oppose a referendum are long gone.”

Ben Goldsmith, 26, is on the host committee and has been involved in setting up Our Say, a campaign dedicated to introducing petition-based referendums. Its latest study, the Voting Happiness Index establishes a link between happiness and a sense of political involvement. According to him, the constitutional treaty is a key example of how the electorate must not be excluded. “It is outrageous that they should look to push through changes as big as these without consulting the people,” he says.

The EU constitution, rejected by the French and the Dutch in 2005, now slightly revised and officially downgraded to a plan B “treaty”, has until last week stayed on the periphery of the headlines. Gordon Brown must have felt that he was in the clear, despite having reneged on a Labour manifesto promise of a referendum, saved from a real rebellion by the sheer drabness and technicality of the subject matter.

But the tide is turning. Last week David Blunkett challenged Brown to explain why he is denying the public a vote. And an ICM poll in June for the Open Europe think tank showed that 81% of 18 to 24-year-olds and 85% of 25 to 34-year-olds asked believed that they should be given a say on the treaty. +

Full times on line article

Keith Vaz voices support for a referendum on the EU treaty

"I think once and for all we need to put this behind us by putting it to the British people." - Keith Vaz

"Changing some words and putting it in French" could not hide the fact that the reform treaty was largely the same as the rejected con-stitution"

French films and tropical tuna are among some of the causes British money will be used to promote.

"We think at the moment it's essentially a constitution and would require a referendum." - Ian Davidson, Labour MP