Vox Polis

It’s one year since the French rejected the EU Constitution in a referendum. And what have our leaders learned?

Meeting last weekend EU foreign ministers decided that their biggest mistake was to call it a Constitution. Not a big surprise there really. But they failed to come up with any real ideas to solve the crisis, except to come back to it next year. As we reported here the Commission is keen to bring back the Constitution, but many leaders seem to want to kick it into the long grass for the time being.

Now i think more than a rebrand is needed to resell the Constitution. Sure calling it a Constitution was clearly a bad move. The 265 page document is not really a Constitution anyway. Usually a Constitution starts with “we the people”…this long document started “the king of Belgium, President of Germany” etc…it is and always will be a intergovernmental treaty.

But to believe that renaming it will fool the voters in France and the Netherlands, is truly unbelievable. No the EU has to start from scratch and rebuild it’s allegiances to recreate confidence in the EU project.

Great post on shelly’s site about Scotland and London. I love reading about American’s visit and view of the UK. Some of the highlights:

• Grimy windows promised nothing good especially after reading the menu which mainly consisted of fish and chips (note chips are what we Americans call freedom-fries), baked beans and sausage and the unofficial Scottish national dish, deep fried pizza with a portion of deep fried Mars bars… No wonder the people here are so fat.
• There is no denying Scots are ugly and bad mannered. In America you just see bums and Liberals spitting on the streets, burping, scratching their crotch or even farting in public. Not in Scotland. 90% of the people never seem to have heard the word manners.
• Irn Bru is a lemonade that mainly consists of poisonous chemicals which are causing cancer and damaging your brain cells.

Well who do you think?? Tony, of course.

According to the German press Tony Blair is the best paid leader in Europe. And worth every penny. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, comes second.

Well thanks to David Amess, we now know the cost of an MP- a massive £500,000…that’s including the administration and running costs of the old dusty Houses of Commons (that’s right these figures don’t even include the House of Lords).

mr Amess: To ask the Leader of the House what the cost was per hon. Member in (a) 2004-05 and (b) each of the previous four years; and if he will make a statement. [70410]

Mr. Straw: I have taken this question to be referring to the total costs of the House of Commons per hon. Member.

Direct costs of the House of Commons are the sum of the Estimates for House of Commons: Administration and House of Commons: Members, though a range of the costs within the Administration Estimate do not relate solely to Members.

Financial year

Total cost(1) (£ million)

Total per Member (659)

As long as Bulgaria can get a hold of its crime problems it looks like both Bulgaria and Romania will be joining the EU club next year. I believe this is good news for the EU, but that’s because I don’t believe that there should be any limits to the EU. Why not include Turkey, Serbia, hell, even Russia if she wants to join.

It seems that once again the issue of migration is a big concern. When the EU expanded to include 10 new members in 2004, only Sweden, Ireland and the UK allowed the free movement of workers. This has greatly benefited our country and the economy. By being one of only a few countries we were able to attract some of the best workers.

But there is a fear that the UK won’t be as accommodating when Romania and Bulgaria join. MigrantWatch says 300,000 people will come flocking to the UK, IPPR says 56,000. Who’s right?

Well I think that IPPR’s analysis is correct although their figures probably a little low.
The IPPR have pointed out that the UK isn’t high on the list of new places to leave for Bulgarians and Romanians. Most want to live in the mediterranean. Also other member states are more likely to open their borders this time. However I do believe more that 56,000 will turn up. But those that do will be of great benefit to this country. Don’t give in to the short sightedness promoted by the Daily Mail and others. Let us all benefit fully from an expanded EU.

Well it seems that the dreaded EU Constitution beast is to raise its head and roar once again. If you’ve been following the debate recently then you may have noticed that Jose Barroso, in his “communication to the EU Summit,” aka the “Citizens’ Agenda” has basically outlined a time table for the return of the EU Constitution. The plan is to concentrate on action to begin with - convince everyone that the EU is working by achieving a few projects together..such as more co-operation on home and justice issues (also known as getting rid of member states’ vetoes) and issuing a benefit card to all citizens so they know what the benefit of the EU is (what the hell is the cost of that one going to be?).

Then, next year, during the German Presidency of the EU, after the French and the Dutch have a new government thats more popular and more able to get a referendum passed, and over half the states have ratified the EU constitution, it’ll be brought back with the usual fanfare (this time a symbollic declaration to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Messina declaration) with only minor changes for the remaining states to pass any way they can.
If you don’t believe me, then read the speech that Angelica Schwall-Düren, the Deputy head of the SPD in the Bundestag, gave at the IPPR yesterday. She outlined what changes the Germans are going to make during their Presidency to help bring it back.

Personally I think that the UK got a good deal with the EU Constitution, and the framework it outlines would work a hell of a lot better than what we’ve got now. But it seems i’m not on the side of the majority.
Speaking on the other side of the debate at the IPPR was Denis MacShane, the ex-Europe Minister, who decided to declare that what all the leaders of Europe are really thinking, and saying in private, is that the Constitution is dead, but they won’t admit it publically. I think that’s proabably quite true. What I really think is happening, is the buraeaucracy (i.e. EU Commission) are the one’s that are really pushing for it. The EU Leaders are just trying to show they’re not completely incompetent by suggesting some minor alterations (cherrypicking, ‘grand projets’ etc etc).

If you follow the above link to Denis’ speech you come out at David Rennie’s blog (who’s pretty good at following what’s going on in the EU, even if his paper - the Daily Telegraph- doesn’t always appreciate it). He argues that Denis’ speech is the best idea we’re going to get of what Blair and the government are thinking. Although there’s some truth to this (the government would definately like the issue to disappear, especially if they have to have a referendum) I think Blair will sign up to anything that the other EU states agree. But also don’t foget that Denis was at odds with Blair over the referendum (read his speech for the highlights) he could be expressing a different opinion now.

It’s no surpise that Blair has decided the government’s energy review has decided to back the nuclear option, as Blair will signal in a speech tonight…but it’s not the only solution. If only they’d read our comments here.

I’m glad to see that Sweden are going to discuss the issue of intellectual property rights during their election this year. In January the Pirate Party was formed to push the agenda. They’re policies at first included abolishing all patents and decriminalising internet file sharing. This is based on the argument that if you can’t enforce it, then don’t legislate - and as we all know it is very difficult to enforce copyright on the Internet.

However as the General Election has been approaching they’ve moved towards a softer line -with the policy to reduce the lifetime of patents from 25 to 5 years. Sounds sensible to me. Looks like the kind of grouping we could do with in the UK - especially as people like Sir Cliff Richard are pushing for longer royalty payments (as we reported last month).

This is what I like about the European democratic system - if you’re annoyed by something, or don’t just think your politicians are listening to you, you don’t just write a letter to your MP or moan about it in the pub. No, you form your own political party. And the chances are you’ll win a few seats (see Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands). Ok, so it doesn’t make for good government (look at the mess Prodi’s in) but you can make a point. Similar attempts in the UK (Referendum party, Veritas) always seem disappointing to me.

Any doubt that the UK’s foreign policy was decided by the US has finally been squashed - it seems that America now has the power to demote British ministers.  This story in the Sunday Indepedent argues that Jack Straw was demoted because of a phone call from President Bush last month over Jack’s stand on Iran.  I hinted on Friday that Iran was one of the reasons for Jack’s demotion.  As we’ve seen several times over the last few months, Jack’s views differ from that of the Prime Minister’s view (as dictated by President Bush).  Whereas Blair has said that no option has been removed from the table, Straw has said that an attack on Iran would be foolish.

But was this the only reason for Straw’s demise?  Does anyone think that taking Condi on a tour of Blackburn suggested he was over stretching his position??

Looks like the EU has finally taken action on battery recycling…it’s about time, especially looking at the UK’s poor record as we reported here in February.