eurealist.co.uk

MEPs Sticking their Snouts In

I note from Euobserver (side bar) that MEPs have given the go ahead for the EU Constitution, well to be honest the headline is just a tad misleading, because it was not all MEPs but a committee of these expensive wastrels. Who voted 20/ 3 in favour of the thing, one is tempted to inquire, and did we expect a different outcome.

One could also ask what on earth the EU parliament is doing voting on the EU Constitution in the first place, it is actually nothing to do with them, at last count there were 25 member countries in the EU that is 25 separate parliaments have to ratify before they can go ahead not 26 (although 20 members of the new Commision have said that they intend to ignore the fact that they have no legal rights to go ahead and intend to treat the thing as already in place).

So the MEPs are taking it upon themselves to interfere in something that is not their business, any vote they take has absolutely no effect on the outcome of ratification, nothing they say can have any affect on the contents of the document, if they all voted it down it would not make the slightest difference, so why are they doing it, quite clearly, this is an attempt to start the ball rolling and to influence the member states decision to ratify, by the domino effect they hope will make those who are doubtful thin again the same method was attempted by the British government over regional assemblies.

Of course one effect of the EU Parliament’s debate is that the Constitution will be analysed in detail by dozens of legal and constitutional experts from every shade of the political spectrum across the EU. The results of their investigations are publicly available and may be drawn on by national parliaments to feed into their own debates. Yes well, in an EU parliament they will only be talking about what is good for the EU, we have to make the decision is it good for Britian, will it make the EU more open will it make the EU more democratic, will it make the more accountable and will it return the sovereignty to the British people to elect and dismiss their lawmakers and the MEPs have no place in that decision.