Eurotrash - The latest from Brussels
WORKERS, NOV 2006 ISSUE
The constitution they can't forget
Germany wants a road map in place by the end of its EU Presidency next summer, with implementation before the next EU election in 2009. Foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmer said, "...we urgently need it, everyone has to move their position."Italian president Giorgio Napolitano said, "...a renewed will and political unity at the maximum level of member states are indispensable, as are institutional innovations planned by the treaty." Spain's foreign minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, insisted that Spain is not ready to "forget" the constitution.
German chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her view that the constitution should not be slimmed down to make it more acceptable to Europe's voters.
EU commissioner Margot Wallstrom gave the commission's view on the future of the constitution: "(we) would not like to depart too much from the Constitutional Treaty." She said that the "core" of the current text, including majority voting rules and an EU foreign minister, should be the Ôdeparture point' for future negotiations and not be re-negotiated.
In fear of the voters
The EU has criticised the results of a recent referendum in Switzerland. Some of the toughest asylum laws in Europe were backed by 68 per cent of those voting. The British government, for example, would not want to follow the Swiss example. The British working class is, rightly, against the Blair government's "open door" policy to new EU member states. A new poll found that Britain is the most sceptical country in Western Europe on immigration - 76 per cent say there are too many immigrants in the country.
About 14 per cent of Bulgarians wanting to migrate when Bulgaria joins would prefer to come to Britain, far more than any other country. Hundreds of thousands of workers from Bulgaria and Rumania will be seeking to come to Britain next year. The Blair government says that few will come. But remember: they told us in 2003 that only 15,000 workers would come here from eastern Europe in 2004 – and 300,000 came in that year alone.