British Sovereignty Act

Scofflaw

From ConservativeHome - an outline of the probable new Tory Party European strategy to be announced today:

* There'll be no referenda on Lisbon (we knew that), nor a referendum to achieve a mandate for a wider renegotiation (we suspected that and now know it for definite).
* If elected to government David Cameron will seek to repatriate powers on 'fundamental rights', social and employment law and on criminal justice policy.
* There might be a referendum if Europe does not co-operate with renegotiations but no mechanisms were detailed as to how repatriations would be achieved.
* There will be a British Sovereignty Act to stop further transfer of powers and a promise to put all future Treaties to referenda will be enshrined in an amendment to the 1972 European Act.
* Apparently the Tory whips and key frontbenchers were coordinating applause for Cameron.

Future EU treaties being put to referendum in the UK will give every future UK government a real headache. I wonder if they'll find a way to roll back or diminish that promise if they're elected.

cordially,
Scofflaw

BlitzKrieg

Maybe they are betting on the lower house shooting it down?

I mean what does the house of lords hate more? the EU or referendums?

View

Scofflaw wrote: »

From ConservativeHome - an outline of the probable new Tory Party European strategy to be announced today:



Future EU treaties being put to referendum in the UK will give every future UK government a real headache. I wonder if they'll find a way to roll back or diminish that promise if they're elected.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Should they be elected to power, as seems likely, the Conservatives will be the Government of the UK. The views of the Eurosceptics will be a lot less important then than the views of the middle ground of the electorate who, I suspect, have very little interest in having referenda. It is not as if there were mass demonstrations in favour of a referendum on Lisbon, was there?

molloyjh

Scofflaw wrote: »

From ConservativeHome - an outline of the probable new Tory Party European strategy to be announced today:



Future EU treaties being put to referendum in the UK will give every future UK government a real headache. I wonder if they'll find a way to roll back or diminish that promise if they're elected.

cordially,
Scofflaw

It is an interesting question alright. If they are in power when a new Treaty is put to the Member States then how keen will they be on the British public voting on something they negotiated? I'm not convinced that this is anything more than the Tories making the right noises with little interest in following it up. I suppose time will tell.

Steviemak

molloyjh wrote: »

It is an interesting question alright. If they are in power when a new Treaty is put to the Member States then how keen will they be on the British public voting on something they negotiated? I'm not convinced that this is anything more than the Tories making the right noises with little interest in following it up. I suppose time will tell.

I agree. How can a govt negotiate a treaty (no doubt they will have won concessions that they are happy with) then go back to their electorate and campaign to reject it. It just won't happen.

Scofflaw

Steviemak wrote: »

I agree. How can a govt negotiate a treaty (no doubt they will have won concessions that they are happy with) then go back to their electorate and campaign to reject it. It just won't happen.

Indeed - they'll actually be putting themselves in the position of campaigning for the EU treaty that they've negotiated, thereby leaving all the eurosceptical action to UKIP/BNP...

...have they really thought this one through?

amused,
Scofflaw

ChocolateSauce

Hmm....If the British left the EU, or even showed they weren't committed to it, it would be great for Ireland. International investment that might have gone to the UK would go to us instead.

Mr.Micro

The British have one foot in Europe the other in the past and its former empire. They should make their minds up once and for all and commit fully to Europe or opt out.

sceptre

Steviemak wrote: »

I agree. How can a govt negotiate a treaty (no doubt they will have won concessions that they are happy with) then go back to their electorate and campaign to reject it. It just won't happen.

It'd be like that Yes Minister episode where Jim Hacker got an annoying and inconvenient petition against government surveillance delivered to his office as Minister of Administrative Affairs, a petition which he'd started himself while in opposition.

The flip-flop will be entertaining.

SkepticOne

Lisbon is the last "big treaty". Future ones will be relatively minor and most won't involve a net transfer of sovereignty (the condition that would trigger a referendum) and the tories will oppose those anyway so it is unlikely that the issue of a referendum will arise.

View

SkepticOne wrote: »

Lisbon is the last "big treaty". Future ones will be relatively minor and most won't involve a net transfer of sovereignty (the condition that would trigger a referendum) and the tories will oppose those anyway so it is unlikely that the issue of a referendum will arise.

I wouldn't agree that Lisbon was a "big treaty". Relative to many of the other treaties it did not break much new ground as almost all of it consisted of re-writing of the existing procedures of the EU. I'd actually suspect that in 20 years time it'll be all but forgotten about.

Likewise, I'd almost be certain that in future we probably will see more "big treaties" - that is to say, where the member states decide to set the EU on a new direction.

ei.sdraob

If elected to government David Cameron will seek to repatriate powers on 'fundamental rights', social and employment law and on criminal justice policy.

what does that mean

going back on the Charter of Human rights? why?? do they have UKIP/BNP like policy of wanting to reintroduce the death penalty

marmurr1916

View wrote: »

I wouldn't agree that Lisbon was a "big treaty". Relative to many of the other treaties it did not break much new ground as almost all of it consisted of re-writing of the existing procedures of the EU. I'd actually suspect that in 20 years time it'll be all but forgotten about.

Likewise, I'd almost be certain that in future we probably will see more "big treaties" - that is to say, where the member states decide to set the EU on a new direction.

The two 'big treaties' were the Single European Act (made the creation of the Single Market by end 1992 a legal objective) and the Treaty of Maastricht (created the EU, led to creation of euro, created Common Foreign and Security Policy & Justice and Home Affairs 'pillars').

Guess which party was in power when the UK ratified both treaties, without referendums?