The noose closes on UK Govt leaked EU document reveals Government doesn't
even know what it is signing up to the Lisbon Treaty
February 12, 2008
The noose closes round British government
Open Europe--see below-- has released the Presidency's list of unfinished
business to be dealt with once the Constitution has been smuggled through.
As well as terms and conditions for the President and the Foreign Minister,
it includes the structure, operation and field of action of Europol, the new
powers and operation of Eurojust ("We could compel the British police to
make a prosecution"), the rules governing the European Public Prosecutor and
its functions, and the powers of the new sinister-sounding "Operational
Committee on Internal Security", or COSI. (The portentous apparatus for
common defence and foreign policies will probably prove an expensive farce.)
The final blueprint for COSI's extensive powers has yet to be finalised,
however. Negotiations on the issue will take place in the second half of
this year - after the planned ratification of the Treaty in the House of
Commons, meaning MPs will not know what they have signed up to. Talks on
COSI will be held in secret. Waterfield cites leaked internal EU documents,
circulated almost three years ago which admitted that "the exact nature of
the committee cannot be discerned by reading" the relevant clause of the
Treaty - and no new work to clarify the issue has been carried out since.
Tony Bunyan, of the Statewatch civil liberties group, has warned that if the
Government "gets its way we will see an EU Interior Ministry without any
democratic control. It is quite outrageous that the role of the new EU
internal security committee is being decided in secret. If COSI becomes a
high-level legislative body, as well being in charge of operational matters,
a whole swathe of decision-making and practice will be removed from
democratic debate and discussion."
Full article and ref at britanniatradio
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