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Smuggling in the EU constitution
WORKERS, JUNE 2007 ISSUE
EU governments are secretly negotiating a new treaty, intended to replace the EU Constitution, which the French and Dutch rejected in 2005. The German government wants the EU to agree the treaty at the 22 June European Council and for all the EU governments to ratify it by the end of 2007.
EU leaders expect to use the treaty to impose key features of the rejected Constitution, claiming these changes would get the enlarged EU moving, but actually the EU has been making new rules and regulations some 25 per cent faster since enlargement.
Blair wrote on 23 April 2004, "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." But this is exactly what he and the other EU leaders are now proposing to do whilst protesting all the while that the changes were merely verbal.
Open Europe (www.openeurope.org.uk) has produced a useful new pamphlet, 'The new treaty: what will it mean, and do we need a referendum?'
What the treaty means
The pamphlet says a referendum is necessary and spells out what the treaty means. "Like the Constitution, the new treaty would create powerful new positions and institutions, making the central EU institutions more powerful in relation to the member states." For example, the EU's leaders want an EU President to be appointed by the European Council for two-and-a-half year terms, which would bring control of the 3,500 civil servants in the Council Secretariat and give the President both a substantial power base and an incentive to expand it. The new President would change the nature of the legislative process in Brussels so that negotiations would in future take place between one unelected, independent Brussels institution and another, removing the need for any involvement of the national heads of government.
The pamphlet explains: "Many also see the President as a stepping stone to a US-style President of Europe. The author of the constitutional treaty, Giscard d'Estaing, has already suggested that the new President of the Council will later be merged with the President of the Commission, and be directly elected. The (UK) Government tried to block an amendment which allows the two posts to be merged, but later gave way".
On the question of the Foreign Minister, the pamphlet continues: "The new treaty is likely to include the 'EU Foreign Minister' proposed in the original constitution", creating a powerful supranational official as well as various new powers – for example: to "automatically" speak on behalf of member states in key international meetings like the UN security council. The British Government gave way to this too, though still hangs on to changing the title of Foreign Minister (and possibly the President) to something less emotive. But as Italian Prime Minister Prodi has pointed out, "as long as we have more or less a European Prime Minister and a European Foreign Minister then we can give them any title."
The barrack-like Berlaymont building where the European Commission is based.
The pamphlet draws attention to another proposal from the constitutional treaty that is likely to resurface in the new treaty: the way that the EU takes votes. "The system will be altered so that it is harder for member states to block legislation ... Britain's power ... would be cut by nearly 30 per cent."
Immigration
The Blair Government has already given away our veto over asylum and illegal immigration, in December 2004. The treaty would end our veto over legal migration for which the Commission has been pushing.
The EU recently completed its "first phase" towards common immigration policies. The second phase would be a Common European Immigration Policy. It wants an EU-wide green card system, which would give the EU control over whom we let into the country; harmonised conditions for the immigration of third-country nationals at EU level; an EU-level "independent assessment" to decide who would be allowed entry; and a combined EU work-residence permit.
Some in this country including, unsurprisingly, the Roman Catholic Church, support the EU's attacks on our sovereignty. A demonstration of 7 March, following a "Mass in Support of Migrant Workers'" at Westminster Cathedral, called for the regularisation of all migrants in the EU. Those taking part in the rally demanding closing all detention centres and ending all deportations included Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Baroness Shirley Williams and Jack Dromey, Deputy General Secretary, Transport and General Workers Union.
An open door for migrant labour is the mirror-image of an open door for capital. Capitalists want more migrant labour because it is cheaper and easier to control. All workers here now, wherever they are from, should organise in trade unions, insist on controls on the movement of labour and defend their own wages and conditions from being driven down.
Demand a referendum
Blair wrote before the 1997 general election, "If there are further steps to European integration, the people should have their say at a general election or in a referendum." But now he and Brown are reneging on this promise. Other EU governments also promised a referendum on the treaty and are now reneging.
We need a referendum for seven main reasons, the first being that any significant treaty should be subject to a referendum. This EU treaty is certainly significant. Sir Antony Acland, former Head of the Diplomatic Service, said, "The idea that the Government should adopt such a significant new treaty without a referendum would be a very dangerous development."
Second, we need the chance to say No. Before the French and Dutch referendums, EU leaders said that if any country rejected the Constitution that would be the end of it. They have reneged on this pledge.
Third, if they get away with not holding a referendum, EU leaders will then implement all the other parts of the EU Constitution and more, over time. Commission President Barroso says that once the new treaty is in place, "nothing rules out the possibility of certain more ambitious aspects later on."
Fourth, the treaty gives the EU even more powers. Without a referendum, it would be up to MPs to decide, but MPs have no right to give away for ever powers that we only lent them in the first place. Sir John Coles, also a former Head of the Diplomatic Service, said, "If there are to be significant transfers of power to the European level then people should be consulted in a referendum." Geoffrey Fitchew, formerly a Director General at the European Commission, said, "The rejected European Constitution would have seriously weakened the ability of the UK and other Member States to influence or block EU legislation...If any of these proposals are repeated in a new treaty, UK electors must be consulted in a referendum."
Fifth, the proposed treaty is a huge step towards a single EU state, towards ending the sovereignty of all Europe's nations. We have the right to govern ourselves, so we have the right (and the duty) to reject the treaty. The EU works like a ratchet: it always goes in a single, definite direction; it is run by capitalists for capitalists' maximum freedom of action, which means for a single capitalist EU state.
Sixth, no one under the age of 50 has had a chance to have a vote on the EU. It's about time we did. We are entitled to vote on a matter that affects all our futures.
Lastly, and fundamentally, this is about democracy. A TNS poll of voters in all 27 member states in March 2007 found that 75 per cent of voters across Europe want a referendum on any treaty which transfers further powers to the EU and 64 per cent oppose the EU having more powers.
Our class wants the EU to have fewer powers and wants more decisions to be taken at a national level. This is in fact to call to get out of the EU, for the EU cannot accept this. There cannot be a decentralised, reformed, non-capitalist EU, any more than there can be a decentralised, reformed, non-Catholic Catholic Church or a reformed, non-social democratic Labour Party. We need to end the EU.