Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
WORKERS, APR 2007 ISSUE
Fifty years too long
Politicians across Europe are still trying to think of ways to present the discredited EU constitution in a different light.Giuliano Amato, Italian Interior Minister, wants to "change the name, but not the substance" of the constitution. He said the "good thing about not calling it a constitution is that no one can ask for a referendum on it".
French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has reaffirmed his commitment to bringing back the constitution as a "simplified treaty". He says the abolition of national vetoes over EU decisions is essential because one or two member states should not be able to stop the EU advancing.
Spanish Europe Minister Alberto Navarro criticised the Polish and Czech governments for opposing the return of the constitution. Navarro pointed out that they are getting "billions" of euros in EU subsidies; appearing to suggest that they should be more grateful.
Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, is campaigning to have a slimmed-down constitution agreed by EU governments – within a year and without recourse to national referendums. EU leaders, Blair included, have agreed to drop the word "constitution" from the text – deciding to speak only of "reform".
The figures that don't add up
The government claims that the migrants from new EU member states are all young, single people who do not claim benefits. Home Office figures don't bear that out. Since April 2004, 579,000 migrants from eastern Europe have registered to work here. This number excludes the self-employed or anyone not registered on the Workers' Registration Scheme. 70,000 of these migrants are now claiming benefits, at a cost of £77 million a year.
Almost two years after enlargement, Britain is still receiving an estimated 20,000 workers per month from new EU member states; Poles, Lithuanians and Slovaks top the migrant table. The last three months of 2006 saw a 23 per cent increase in the number of registrations over the same period in 2005. There has also been a rise in the number of families migrating – one in seven of those officially registered is now a dependent.