Finessing the coalition’s EU referendum lock
Mats Persson 10:53am
The Coalition Government’s proposal for a 'referendum lock' on future transfers of powers to the EU has already been branded “worthless” by some
Tory backbenchers .
It’s easy to share their frustration at the Coalition’s lack of interest in EU reform so far. After all, the Government has chosen to opt in to the European Investigation Order; signed up for new EU financial supervisors; and chosen not to challenge the UK’s participation in the eurozone bailout (making British taxpayers potentially liable for up to £8 billion in loans to eurozone governments).
However, the referendum lock is still significant. New crises, situations and politicians’ egos will always drive the need for another treaty and further integration. For example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly called for a new treaty to fix the eurozone, likely to spill over to Britain in one way or another. The threat of the UK’s referendum lock could be an important strategic asset to argue that a repatriation of powers is the only way the British electorate would agree to the changes. If negotiated intelligently, the net effect would be more powers for Westminster and less for Brussels.
The coalition’s pledge is also an important victory of principle over the EU elite, which turned its back on the people after the French, Dutch and Irish ‘No’ votes to the EU Constitution.
However, the temptation to slip into the habits of the Labour Government, simply calling transfers of powers something else, is obvious. 47 percent of Britons now want out of the EU altogether, and any more deception regarding the loss of sovereignty to the EU could see popular opinion blow up.
For example, under the Lisbon Treaty, the Coalition government needs to decide whether it wants to opt in to a series of measures or amendments to existing EU legislation in Justice and Home Affairs. Any new legislation or amendments to existing rules it opts into will fall under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. By any definition, this involves a transfer of powers, as EU judges would have the final say over those laws.
The ‘referendum lock’ therefore needs to be strong enough to withstand any attempts to bury difficult questions like this, including:
-- The decision on what constitutes a ‘transfer of powers’ cannot be left to the discretion of ministers or ministers’ legal advisors. It must be independent.
-- Absolutely key is that any decision to opt into measures in Justice and Home Affairs be subject to the referendum lock, or at the very least, an Act of Parliament. This would mean that the
Coalition cannot opt in to, say, an amendment to the European Arrest Warrant, giving the ECJ the final say over this law, unless the people, or the Parliament, agree (if they don’t agree, the
UK would automatically be required to opt out of the EAW altogether by 2014, which would effectively repatriate powers back to the UK).
-- Every use of the Lisbon Treaty’s ratchet clauses or other articles, which involve handing over control to Brussels - subject to a strict definition (for example abolishing vetoes in an existing area of competencies or misuse of Treaty articles to extend the EU’s powers) - should be covered by the referendum lock or an Act of Parliament. This would neutralise the “self-amendment” provisions in the Lisbon Treaty.
This is not an ideal solution. But, still, if it fulfils these three points the referendum lock would represent a far better attempt at putting a halt to ‘ever closer union’ than anything else proposed by a British government in a long time.
Mats Persson is director of Open Europe
Previous
Rhoda Klapp
September 14th, 2010 11:13am Report this commentThis reads as panglossian claptrap. How many times must we be betrayed before we stop trusting? Powers NEVER flow back to the nations once ceded to the EU. Current in-force treaties allow for massive flows of 'competence' to the EU without any new treaty being needed. And still the government in some future time might call ANY treaty just a tidying-up exercise not justifying a referendum. Which even if it took place would be repeated as many times as necessary to get the correct result.
Vulture
September 14th, 2010 11:19am Report this commentThe only 'lock' we need to discuss is the lock on the minds of the politicians of the three major political parties who refuse to accept the reality of what the EU has become: a ravening monster that has swallowed our independence, our liberties and our democracy.
Matts seems puzzled that ( according to his poll figures) half the electorate 'want out of the EU altogether' and appears to regard this as undesirable. Au contraire - support for the EU has fallen as its malign nature has become ever clearer and will continue to do so. Why is that surprising?
If we really want to restore our stolen freedom we need to escape from this EUSSR trap now...by forcing the coalition to hold an in/out referendum. After all, they are holding one on AV, and this question is far more fundamental.
Frank P
September 14th, 2010 11:20am Report this commentRhoda K
Exactly!
strapworld
September 14th, 2010 11:47am Report this commentPerhaps the Spectator may like to studt this press release from our European masters and then ask the coalition just where they stand!
I doubt that they will give any answer. Personally I fear that they are more wedded to the EU than any government, including Heath's!
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/10/1117&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
JohnPage
September 14th, 2010 11:50am Report this commentYes, they've opted in to the European Investigation Order and signed up for new EU financial supervisors, but of course next time it will be different.
This feeble post is playing the europhile government's game. The 'lock' is nothing but window dressing and the power grab will go on.
That is, until German voters have had enough.
Norman Dee
September 14th, 2010 12:00pm Report this commentCameron et al have and are being a huge disappoinment on europe, when he cancelled the referendum on Lisbon I was prepared to listen to the reasonable argument that there was nothing to vote on, but still hoped that a more sceptic attitude was still in place. This I now see is wrong, I have signed up for the new referendum, and my future vote is up for grabs for someone with the balls to attack this blossoming facist state.
David Parker
September 14th, 2010 12:05pm Report this commentWhilst Open Europe does an excellent and useful job in researching and exposing the defects of the EU and the European Parliament, it does not advocate the withdrawal of Britain from the EU, but merely the gradual reform of that institution. Sadly, however well intentioned, many of us believe this to be an unachievable ambition.
The very structure of the European Project was deliberately designed by its founders to make any meaningful reformation impossible, unless such changes advanced the cause of ever closer union (the notorious "ratchet" principle).
Given the fact that Clegg actively favours closer intergation, whilst both Cameron and Hague have repeatedly publicly stated that they would under no circumstances ever contemplate a British withdrawal from membership of the EU, the proposed Referendum Lock will almost certainly be as full of deliberate ambiguities and qualifications as was Dave's "Cast Iron Promise".
So far from advancing any pretensions which the coalition might claim to being opposed to further EU integration, the proposed Referendum Lock will actually facilitate this, by the tacit implication that any further transfers of power not caught by the deliberately vague provisions of this Act, can proceed unopposed by our puppet government.
In2minds
September 14th, 2010 12:54pm Report this commentRhoda Klapp @ September 14th, 2010 11:13am - The reason Mats Person writes "panglossian claptrap" is he wants to reform the EU. He, like the Nucoalition, don't want the UK to leave it. Until we only vote for political parties who promise the latter nothing changes.
Alan Douglas
September 14th, 2010 12:56pm Report this comment"Merkel has repeatedly called for a new treaty to fix the eurozone, likely to spill over to Britain in one way or another."
Except, because it is about the eurozone, it will be argued that it has NO relevance to Britain, therefore no need to apply that lock.
Am I too cynical ?
Alan Douglas
michael
September 14th, 2010 12:57pm Report this commentPerhaps we should form another international club, a bureaucratic quagmire of automated telephony and messaging, the infinite roundelay through which all proposed euro-legislation should be... 'reviewed'
In the interests of social justice the offices could manned by one part time immigrant who would have to be taught a european language, by which time the visa will have expired... and so on.
We need to be a bit more 'French'.
anextoryvoter
September 14th, 2010 1:04pm Report this commentAs far as I am concerned The Coalition can stick any Referendum Lock they dream up "where the sun don't shine". Not a single action they have taken to date has given any indication that they intend to live up to their pre-election promises. I don't believe they will ever be honest with the electorate about their true intentions regarding sovereignty and democracy. As for "the ratchet" the only one worth considering would be closely coupled to noose around the necks of every one of them, irrespective of party. With very few exceptions they are duplicitious, corrupt, self-serving and not to be trusted.
Check the voting records and then tell me how many MPs actually vote according to their principles, or the wishes of their electorate, rather than the demands of the whips? Find a dozen and you will be doing astonishingly well.
perdix
September 14th, 2010 1:22pm Report this commentWhat we need is a New Reformation to free us from Europe's political princes and secular popes.
Vulture
September 14th, 2010 1:29pm Report this commentIf anyone is still in any doubt that the tyrannical power of the EU has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished they should listen to the soundbite used on R4's World at One today of Viviane Reding, the un-elected EU 'Justice' commissioner in denouncing France for its expulsion of the Roma.
She actually used the phrase 'My patience is exhausted' which was last used by a little fella with a small brown moustache at the height of the Sudetenland crisis in 1938.
The EU has replaced sovereign states in Europe - and no-one has voted for it.
TrevorsDen
September 14th, 2010 1:47pm Report this commentIt would not bother me if we were out of the EU ... but the harsh fact is we hear a lot of 'claptrap' from people like Ms Klapp.
Even if out of the EU we would probably implement many of its measures - the important difference would be that it would be subject to parliament.
But in any event - if out of the EU would we be any better governed? Perhaps but it would be marginal.
The driver I think for anti EU sentiment is immigration and lurking beyond that is racism.
Again even out of the EU we would I think allow quite a bit of EU based immigration - but (again) it would be subject to parliament.
Would Human Rights legislation be any different?
The sad thing about the likes of Ms Klapp is that our problems do not lie with Europe they lie closer to home. We should stop blaming phantoms and support the party which has a thin chance of undoing 13 years of Blair/Brown disaster and of keeping their idiot successors at bay.
Osred
September 14th, 2010 1:49pm Report this comment'referendum lock' Another 'cast iron' PR inspired bit of nebulous vapid crud.
How about a 'financial firewall' where £s outflow is reduced but £s inflow can get in instead of the forthcoming reduction of whats left of the 'rebate'.
HFC
September 14th, 2010 2:05pm Report this comment#strapworld @ 11.47am
I followed your link as far as the author of the policy it proposes - another effing dyed in the wool socialist whose CV starts with her student activism and who is now an EU Commissioner. That's what the Union is all about...
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/damanaki/about/cv/index_en.htm
Isopro
September 14th, 2010 2:33pm Report this commentThe trouble is that no-one trusts our Government with matters 'EU' and a referendum lock will not change that.
The criteria used to define what power is given away will always be in contention, as it will not be decided by the people, it will be decided by politicians - how does this feel different from the government's (especially the previous one) 'we know best' attitiude that people are sick of?
Down on 'the street' this just makes people angrier as they see powers slowly leaking away, while our quality of life decreases (caused by both globalisation and EU regulation).
People see this, people feel this and the path we are being led, is both naive and irresponsible.
When people lose faith in their representatives they look for alternatives, and some of them are very unpleasant indeed... and the political class will sneer and lament our stupidity in supporting these causes, without facing the extreme irony that it is they that have made this to happen.
By all means have a refernedum lock, but until there is a referendum on EU membership, the problem will fester on and on.
People who support our membership of the EU should push for a vote as soon as possible, it may already too late but do you honestly believe that the EU will be more popular in 2yr, 5yr, 10yr time?
Its going to end in tears, but i would much prefer tears than bloodshed.
anextoryvoter
September 14th, 2010 2:41pm Report this comment@ Trevore Den
I don't care whether we would, or would not implement EU measures if we were to leave the EU. What matters to me is that were we to leave I would have a democratic say in my fate. At present my life is ruled by a set of politicians who mistakenly believe that "they know best" what is good for their electorate. Worse still, these politicians are actually controlled by a set of faceless bureaucrats in Brussels. I have no say in my future, so give me democracy or give me nothing. The coalition will never get my vote, they are complicit in the continuing denial of my right to vote on my own future.
strapworld
September 14th, 2010 3:09pm Report this commentHFC. well done. One more communist directing us. How on God's earth Cameron and co go along with this I cannot fathom. There has to be brainwashing of politicians. Hague is a total let down.
Still once they have sacked the armed services and we are left with only those on guard at Buckingham Palace. The police are already EU indoctrinated and all common purpose trained (just visit their website and see who have been on courses) and so have no aliegence to the UK. I do believe they all (coalition and opposition) want civil disobedience so that the EU can be called in to control us! (They have signed up for that as well).
No doubt Trevors Den the font of all knowledge will tell us this is "Tripe". He should start doing some serious reading and not rely on Conservative Party HQ.
Rhoda Klapp
September 14th, 2010 3:57pm Report this commenttrevorsden, how many times OUGHT I to accept being betrayed before I withdraw my trust? By a party which presents itself as euro-sceptic when it suits but fails to resist EU encroachment. It would be nice if you avoided telling the world what I think. I want us to quit the EU because it is a tyranny. I do not think withdrawal would be the end of all our troubles. I don't want to stop immigration, I just want to stop importing poor people, because I think we have enough. I want to trade with the whole world without silly rules, but if we need to meet some requiremtns to export to EU countires we can do so, or not. our choice, not theirs.
And I must ask again, you may have missed it last time, what could the coalition and/or the Conservative party do that would ever cause you to question their actions? Blind loyalty is all I see, and it is not necessarily a virtue.
HairyNoddy
September 14th, 2010 6:51pm Report this commentIt's quite possible that Labour could be back in power within a year.
What would the socialist vermin do with this referendum lock? I suspect that they would simply pick it and throw it away.
denis cooper
September 14th, 2010 7:49pm Report this commentThe solution is obvious and shouldn't need to be repeated ad infinitum - we need a formal mechanism which gives the people the independent legal power to order a referendum on any issue of their choosing, at any time of their choosing.
JohnW
September 16th, 2010 10:27am Report this commentThe Lisbon Treaty is a self amending treaty so there will be no more treaties on the transfer of power. Treaties are only required for the enlargement of the EU, precisely the ones excluded from referendums.
At best this is a sham, at worst its a deliberate and cynical lie to the electorate.
Shane B
September 17th, 2010 4:10pm Report this commentLike the Conservative Lisbon Treaty referendum, this "Referendum Lock" is just smoke and mirrors.
There will be NO new treaties! There is no need for the EU to ask the National States for a vote. The Lisbon Treaty is "self-modifing", i.e. the EU can modify it any way they choose. They have total cart-blanche.
Since this is the case, forget the referendum-lock, there will be no referendum on any new treaties giving more power to the EU. They just don't need to have any new treaties in order to grab more power!
David Beard
September 24th, 2010 9:16pm Report this commentForget the Referendum Lock - lets just have a referendum on whether we should stay in the EU. Just consider the £billions that would be saved by withdrawing - just what the coalition government could use right now!
John Prendergast
September 24th, 2010 9:59pm Report this commentCoalition is spot on abolishing Quangos. Let's start with the biggest Quango of all, the EU.
David Barneby
September 25th, 2010 4:29am Report this commentFor those of us who voted in the 1975 referendum , to leave the EEC , our worst fears have been realised , the EU , EUSSR !
One has completely lost faith in successive British governments , including the present one , to protect the British People from the EU .
The present government should have held a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty , regardless ; if the people voted in sufficient numbers against it , the government should have been prepared to renege , withdraw from the Lisbon treaty .
It is clear that holding the EUSSR together is more important to British governments , than their representing the wishes of the British People . Britain should never have agreed to the European Arrest Warrants and should certainly withdraw ASAP . France as we presently see openly defies the EU when it suits them . Britain is thought to be the most Eurosceptic state , perhaps France is even more so .
If 47% of British people want Britain to withdraw from the EU , that is almost certainly a majority , even if less than 50% as those who would vote to stay in would be fewer .
Having a referendum lock is better than nothing , if it is truly enacted as the people expect , with no governmental IFs and BUTs excuses for not upholding it .
The EU is a FAILURE , A DISASTER and it is time that everyone wakes up , accepted the fact and looked for a more workable alternative , or nothing at all .
David Barneby
September 25th, 2010 4:57am Report this commentIt is My opinion that the EU , EUSSR is doomed to fail , it is only a matter of time and maybe not a long time .
So if the Referendum Lock idea is only to pacify the Eurosceptic British public , never mind . The British may be the most outspoken Eurosceptics ; but one should not forget that France and Holland voted against the Constitution .
Many other countries have Eurosceptis ; they need to get together have a PanEuropean United Eurosceptic Society , incorporating Eurosceptics in all 27 EU states . I believe that if Eurosceptics all across Europe united , they could put uncomfotable pressure on the EU and their own governments .
France has been openly defying the EU , over repatriation of the Roma . Other countries such as Britain should openly defy the EU , break the rules as they see fit .
Sarumano
September 25th, 2010 9:38pm Report this commentIt's already been said - but bears repeating - that the EU Constitu- sorry, lisbon Treaty is SELF AMENDING.
The ConDem party will not need to refer any further treaties to referendum, because no further treaties are planned. Cameron is either deluded, in which case he should not be in office, or he is attempting to delude Britain, in which case he should not be in office.
The best thing he could do, for Britain AND the EU, would be to repeal the 1972 Act that took us in, and denounce Heath as the traitor he was...
The next best would be to subject ALL past and future EU diktats to proper Parliamentary debate.
The absolute topper would be to have a referendum on our future membership of the EU, without the vote-rigging that went on in Ireland.
That in itself might cause the EU to reconsider what it is doing to Europe, but I wouldn't hold my breath...
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