Europe: It’s the final climbdown

Treaty sell out farewell

TONY Blair has landed Gordon Brown with a dilemma over Europe’s expanding role in foreign affairs after the European Union summit that ended yesterday.

So in effect we will now have a European foreign minister and we will cede our rights to determine our own foreign policies to the bureaucrats in Brussels, despite the small print fawning to Blair’s final mumblings the EU will have a common foreign and security policy – marvelous!

The Conservatives are not the only ones insisting that we should have a referendum to determine how much sovereign power to hand over, former Labour Foreign Secretary Lord Owen is also backing the demands. He declared.

“Let the people have the final say,”

“Of course the spin and gloss that are being put on the treaty agreed yesterday are that it is different from the EU constitution negotiated in 2004. There are some differences but what is absolutely certain is that all the major constitutional innovations remain in the new treaty:

– A new post whereby a person who is not an elected head of government can be president of the European Council.

– A massive enhancement of the role of high representative for common foreign and security policy who will also become vice-president of the commission.

– For the first time the granting to the EU of a single legal personality whereby the EU can sign treaties and international agreements in its own right.

– A sizeable extension of qualified majority voting.”

William Hague is quoted in Conservative Home as saying;

“Not all the details are clear or finalised but we now know the basis of the new EU Treaty and it is clear that large parts of the EU Constitution are repackaged but back.

Blair and Brown have signed up to major shifts of power from Britain to the EU and major changes in the way the EU works. The EU would now be able to sign treaties in its own right and, despite any ‘opt- ins’, the European Commission and Court of Justice would now have new powers over criminal law. The EU Treaty would also set up a new EU president and diplomatic service. These are just some of the fundamental changes that were in the Constitution and are now set to be in this new Treaty.

Given their manifesto commitment to a referendum on the EU Constitution, the Government have absolutely no democratic mandate to introduce these major changes without letting the British people have the final decision in a referendum.”

This treaty cedes away as much, or if not more, of our own decision making capabilities as Masstricht, Mellisa Kite writing in The Sunday Telegraph has this to say:

“Mr Blair also surrendered Britain’s right to veto EU decisions in more than 40 other areas of policy, including energy, tourism, transport, civil protection and migration. He and Mr Brown clashed during the summit over a clause watering down the EU’s commitment to free trade.”

Open Europe has a comprehensive analysis of the treaty here and it highlights at least 40 areas where the contents of the new constitutional treaty are the same as the EU Constitution – which was overwhelmingly rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Our current Foreign Secretary (but for how long) has been dismissing calls for a referendum despite standing on a manifesto platform in 2005 that plainly stated;

“We will put it to the British people in a referendum”.

So there you are, the deal is done, the spin and the gloss put on it in lavish amount, Gordon Brown already saying that a referendum isn’t necessary because our negotiating position was reached.

Can we now find a new breed of rocker to record Blairs final triumph “The Final Climbdown”?

I guess there is no one to blame
we’re ceding ground (ceding ground)
will things ever be the same again?
It’s the final climbdown.

[YouTube =http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASisLT5XHtg]