MEDIA RELEASE
9 October 2007

Embargo: none

Commons committee: 'Reform treaty' is
really Constitution - DM comment

The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee, which has a Labour majority and chairman, has published its analysis of the EU's so-called Reform Treaty.

The report has concluded that the treaty is 'substantially equivalent' to the Constitution that was supposedly laid to rest by overwhelming 'No' votes in France and Holland in 2005.

The committee found that only superficial articles to do with flags and anthems had been removed from the original document.

Further, committee chairman Michael Connarty MP has told the BBC that the so-called 'red lines' that the government has claimed to have secured - in order to prevent the EU legislating in areas such as criminal justice, defence, foreign affairs, tax and social security - are likely to 'leak like a sieve'.

Ultimately, the declarations contained in the treaty that Gordon Brown claims are watertight guarantees of non-interference will be interpreted by the European Court of Justice. This body has a self-proclaimed 'political mission' to assist ever closer union through its judgements. It was this court that simply asserted the primacy of EU law over that of member states, even though there is no article in the current EU treaty that actually states this.

In September 2005 the court gave the EU the right to attach criminal sanctions to its own directives even though this has never been agreed to by national parliaments and electorates.

This extraordinary power should have required a treaty change. Many legal experts have already argued that the declarations and protocols that provide the basis for the 'red lines' assertion have no definite legal standing.

Despite the Scrutiny Committee's conclusive report, foreign secretary David Miliband has confirmed that the government intends arrogantly whipping the Bill ratifying the Constitution through Parliament.

DM campaign director Marc Glendening comments: