Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
WORKERS, OCT 2006 ISSUE
Bulgaria+Romania+EU=pay cuts
Bulgaria and Romania join the EU next year. There is debate about whether people from those countries should be allowed to work in Britain immediately.Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary, thinks the government should allow it. He said, "You cannot stop Romanians and Bulgarians from coming to the UK." Even the CBI called for a pause before allowing more workers into Britain, because the present influx is putting "enormous pressure" on social services.
Neither acknowledges that the free movement of labour is a basic part of EU law which cuts indigenous workers' wages and conditions. Workers see the effect in their pay packets; all research on the subject backs that view too.
Don't bother to comment
The European Commission is starting to send its proposals for EU laws directly to national parliaments for comment – but it says that it will not review any of its proposals even if the parliaments oppose them.
Our law in their hands
The government plans to abandon Britain's national veto over policing, courts and criminal laws. The Finnish presidency of the EU wants to discuss how police and judicial cooperation issues could be decided by majority vote. Geoff Hoon, the Europe minister, has refused to rule this out, saying that one consequence of the discussion "could be the application of qualified majority voting to some part of EU police and judicial cooperation". Hoon is ignoring his government's 2003 White Paper, which said, "We will insist that unanimity remains for...key areas of criminal procedural law."
Terror blackmail
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has used the terrorist threat to call on member states to give up their veto over home affairs, warning, "Shall we just sit around and wait for the next European terrorist bombs?" However Danish justice minister, Lene Espersen, insisted, "I would rather have that things take time, and that the citizens are secured in their rights rather than making rushed new laws."