Ministers have published the EU Bill, which they promised will give a new legal guarantee that any transfer of British sovereignty to Brussels will be subject to a UK referendum. The Bill promises that any major new EU treaty or any decision that would end Britain’s veto on areas like social and financial policy would be subject to a “referendum lock”. However, the final decision on what triggers a referendum will rest with the Government, and opponents of EU integration said that ministers will still be able to refuse any popular vote. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office confirmed that under the new law, the final decision on holding a referendum will still rest with ministers. The FCO said: “Ministers will have to decide whether any treaty change would transfer power or competence from the UK to the EU and make a reasoned statement explaining their decision. As with all ministerial decisions this would be open to legal challenge through judicial review.” Coalition sources insisted that the opportunity to seek judicial review of decisions would "significantly limit" ministers' discretion over potential referendums. The FCO added that some changes would “always” trigger a referendum, such as decision to give up a “significant” veto, to join the euro or to give up British border controls. However, minor changes to existing EU treaties -- like those currently proposed by Germany -- will not trigger a referendum. And no referendum will be required to approve EU expansion to take in new members such as Croatia or Turkey. Douglas Carswell, a leading Conservative backbench critic of European integration, said that the Bill would have little impact on Britain’s relationship with the EU. He said: “Under this bill, it is for ministers to decide what constitutes a transfer of power. And we know that ministers have consistently denied that transfers of power that have already.” “This is meant to create the optical illusion of being Eurosceptic and it will not do. This is smoke and mirrors.” Mats Persson, director of the Open Europe think-tank, said the Bill was a positive step but did not go far enough. He said: “The Bill leaves too much discretion to Ministers to decide what constitutes a transfer of powers. One can certainly see situations where governments may use such discretion to cede important day-to-day powers to the EU in future.” Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, which wants Britain to leave the EU, said the bill would leave Conservative voters disillusioned. "This piece of paper gives the country no protection at all", he said. "The Government reserves the right to decide what is and what isn't a transfer of sovereignty. It just won’t work.” Labour warned that making referendum decisions liable to judicial review "could lead to costly wrangling in the courts". Saturday, 13 November 2010 10:34 'Ministers have published the EU Bill, which they promised will give a new legal guarantee that any transfer of British sovereignty to Brussels will be subject to a UK referendum. The Bill promises that any major new EU treaty or any decision that would end Britain’s veto on areas like social and financial policy would be subject to a “referendum lock”. However, the final decision on what triggers a referendum will rest with the Government, and opponents of EU integration said that ministers will still be able to refuse any popular vote.EU referendum law is dismissed by sceptics
A new Coalition law promising to curb the power of the European
Union has been dismissed as “an optical illusion” because ministers
will still be able to block a referendum.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Posts
