The fluttering in the Brussels dovecotes is getting very audible as
the anti-democratic forces see their precious treaty - constitution -
being threatened by a popular vote in Britain. They are really
worried that their constitution which extinguishes the nations of
Europe might not happen.
We have plenty of europhiles in Britain and the FT is a nest of them
as you can read for yourself below. The Guardian froths at the mouth
too.
Frankly I think that Brown will stay on till the last moment possible
so they needn’t worry. So we fall back on the Irish, the Czech
president and the German constitutional court and then on the last
resort of Cameron-Hague’s ‘we will not let it rest there” promise.
Slender hopes all of them. Keep fingers crossed - and PRAY!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx cs
=================================
The paper reports that there will be much activity in Brussels over
the coming days as the pace of efforts to form the new group
quickens, with numerous meetings to finalise the new alliance being
scheduled.
Mark Francois, the shadow Europe minister, tells this morning's FT:
"We hope to make an announcement within the next few weeks, once
final negotiations, including staffing issues, have been completed."
The core of the new group will be the 26 Conservative MEPs (yes,
there are 26, despite all media outlets seemingly failing to
recognise Northern Ireland MEP Jim Nicholson and insisting on saying
there are 25).
Then there are nine MEPs from the Czech ODS party and a further
fifteen from Poland's Law and Justice Party.
That's fifty MEPs from three countries just a start.
But European Parliament rules dictate that any grouping seeking
official status in the European Parliament requires MEPs from seven
different countries.
The Guardian suggests that allies from a number of further countries
are being targeted including:
• Three MEP from Latvia;
• Two Danish MEPs;
• And one MEP from each of Belgium, Lithuania and Estonia.
I look forward to being able to report positive news about the
formation of the new group before too long.
Jonathan Isaby
============================
pulling out of the grouping to form a new Eurosceptic bloc called the
European Conservatives and Reformists. [I should think they’re
hopping mad - I hope so anyway! They are are a nasty bunch of
federalists and anti-democratic as well -cs]
Mr Cameron's pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon European Union
Treaty, if it remains unratified by the Irish by the time of a
British general election, has also alarmed the Brussels establishment
as Labour goes into political meltdown.
Joseph Daul, the chairman of EEP, the MEP for Strasbourg and a close
ally of Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President, has said the European
Parliament's number one priority must be defeating Conservative
opposition to the Lisbon Treaty.
"Even though the Conservatives have left, we will work to make sure
the Lisbon Treaty comes into force at the end of the year. We regret
all demagoguery and populism. We will do this even if David Cameron
threatens a referendum," he said. [What he means is that the people
should never be allowed to choose -cs]
Wilfred Martens, the EPP president and former Belgian prime minister,
implied that other EU governments are pressuring Gordon Brown to hold
off an early election, before a second Irish referendum on the Lisbon
Treaty in October.
"It could be rather awkward if we had a snap election in Britain with
a referendum as one of the issues," he said. "The political situation
in the UK is therefore extremely important. We want to see political
stability or we have the danger of opening up a debate that could
jeopardise the Lisbon Treaty."
Mark Francois, the Conservative spokesman on Europe, hit back at Mr
Daul.
"The EPP are entitled to their view, but so are the British people,"
he said. "It is because they were promised a referendum by all three
main parties at the last election and because powers ought not to be
transferred from Britain to Brussels without the voters consent that
we are campaigning for the British people's right to have their say."
EU officials and diplomats also fear that Britain's political
meltdown, after Labour's hammering in European elections, could force
a general elections, followed by Conservative victory and an EU
referendum that finally kill the Lisbon Treaty before a second Irish
vote.
"No one wants an election in Britain, not because of any special
affection for Gordon Brown but because an early election would
threaten the Lisbon Treaty. That cannot happen," [Eh? Of course it
can if the people want it to -cs] said a European diplomat.
A record low turnout in euro elections has helped fringe and
extremist parties to benefit from the economic crisis at the expense
of centre-left parties across the EU.
Traditional Social Democrats or Socialists, in alliance with Labour,
did badly both in government and opposition across the EU as centre-
right governments in Germany, France, Italy and Poland weathered the
storm to consolidate votes.
Voter participation, at 43 per cent, was the lowest on record since
European elections began in 1979, a development that has raised
concern over political credibility at a time when EU powers are
poised to increase the Lisbon Treaty.
Voters angry over the economic crisis punished centre-left
governments in Britain, Spain, Hungary and Bulgaria as Social
Democrats and Socialist failed to capitalise on economic crisis in
Germany, France and Italy.
Anti-immigrant, extremist and previously fringe parties stepped into
the political vacuum with significant gains in the Netherlands,
Austria, Hungary, Finland, Greece and Romania.
============================
Germany’s Angela Merkel are rooting for Mr Brown out of a sense of
personal affection. For a time he looked like a player on the
European stage. That was before he became a certain loser at home.
Europe has never loved Mr Brown, and vice-versa.
No, the leaders in Berlin, Paris and elsewhere have selfish reasons
for hoping that the present British government can stagger on until
next year. They have spent the best part of a decade designing,
redesigning and patching up an agreement to remake the European
Union’s institutions. Once it was called the European constitution;
now it goes by the name of the Lisbon treaty. But, horror of horrors,
with the end at last in sight, David Cameron’s Conservatives are
threatening to wreck the project. [They’ve been threatening to do
just this for a long time now -cs]
The European elections offered confirmation, if it were needed, that
Mr Brown’s administration is heading for the rocks. The prime
minister knew the results would be dreadful. In the event, they were
calamitous. To lag behind the europhobic UK Independence party was
bad enough. To lose seats to the racist British National party was
shaming. His government is now on life support.
There is more at stake in these upheavals, however, than the fate of
one particular set of politicians. The timing of the government’s
demise could mark the difference between a serious argument about
Britain’s relationship with Brussels and a rupture that would set in
train its eventual departure.
It is clear to all that Mr Cameron wants to derail the process of
European integration. His decision to withdraw from the European
People’s party, the European parliament’s mainstream [=federalist and
antidemocratic is mainstream is it? -cs ] centre-right group, is a
step in that direction. By aligning with a hotchpotch of small far-
right parties, Mr Cameron has downgraded his party’s relationship
with its French and German cousins. [Excellent for they have run the
EU to their blueprint for too long -cs]
To move Britain to the sidelines of influence is one thing. To
threaten to blow up the Lisbon accord is another. [In reality this
accord is the creation of a new federal state which extinguishes the
identity of all its member states. -cs] This is what Mr Cameron
proposes by pledging to campaign for its rejection in a British
referendum. And this is where the timing of the general election
really matters.
Until the latest convulsions at Westminster the working assumption
has been that the electoral cycle would thwart Mr Cameron’s plan. An
expected Yes vote by the Irish in the autumn would set the treaty’s
provisions in place by the beginning of next year. A Tory government
elected in mid-2010 would be unable to overturn it.
Mr Cameron acknowledged as much by saying that he would call a
referendum only if the treaty had not yet been fully ratified. Were
he faced with a fait accompli he would seek other, unspecified, ways
to claw back powers from Brussels.
All these calculations go awry if the present government is pushed
into an autumn election. Were Mr Brown forced from office, pressure
on a new Labour leader to call an early poll might be irresistible.
Lord Mandelson, [who as an ex-EU Commissioner has sworn to uphold EU
decisions for ever -cs] who by an extraordinary quirk of politics has
become the prime minister’s guardian, has been making precisely this
point. Few doubt that Mr Cameron would win both the election and a
referendum.
It should be said that there is something inherently barmy about the
referendum plan, even by the terms of the eurosceptics. I cannot
recall a precedent for a government holding a plebiscite on a
proposition it opposes. A newly elected Tory government could, after
all, simply claim a mandate to reject the treaty.
That is as it may be. In either case, the consequences would be
monumental. Mr Cameron might argue that earlier versions of the
treaty were rejected in referendums in France, the Netherlands and
Ireland. But these were not conscious acts of government. [NO! Too
right - the people spoke and were ignored . And we were promised a
voice and it has been denied to us -cs]
Withdrawal from the EPP is a Tory shot across the bows of European
integrationists. Wrecking the Lisbon treaty would be a declaration of
war. Such would be the crisis in Britain’s relationship with its
partners that it would precipitate compelling calls for a re-
evaluation of its membership of the EU. Many Conservatives, one
suspects, would cheer. [Too right, they would -cs]
As for the Tory leader, I am not at all sure that he has thought this
through. He is a eurosceptic, but it is hard to imagine he would want
to see Britain cut adrift from Europe. Perhaps he too imagined that a
2010 election would get him off the hook.
Mr Brown may yet hang on to office. The shock of the European
election results may persuade his adversaries to draw back. One thing
is certain: neither Britain nor Europe needs an autumn general
election. Nor, unless he wants to sleepwalk towards Europe’s exit,
does Mr Cameron.
Tuesday, 9 June 2009
CONSERVATIVE HOME 9.6.09
The Conservatives are "on track" to form new eurosceptic alliance in
Brussels
That isn't my assertion (delighted though I am with the news), but
that of this morning's Guardian - which has been one of the Left-wing
media outlets regularly pouring scorn on David Cameron's decision to
pull Tory MEPs out of the European People's Party and form a new
eurosceptic, free market-oriented grouping in Brussels.
TELEGRAPH 9.6.09
Europe's centre-right declares war on Conservatives
The European Parliament's centre-right grouping has declared war on
David Cameron and said a new Conservative government must not be
allowed to derail the Lisbon Treaty.
By Bruno Waterfield in Brussels
FINANCIAL TIMES 9.6.09
Cameron sleepwalks towards Europe’s exit
By Philip Stephens
[This really gets this europhile into a real tizzy! -cs]
Hang on in there, Mr Brown. Europe needs you for a while yet. The
alternative could be a Conservative prime minister leading Britain
towards the European exit. Such are the whispered anxieties in
continental capitals, and among pro-Europeans in Britain, as Gordon
Brown’s troubles stir speculation about an early general election.
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