eurealist.co.uk

From Ireland comes a legal challenge to EU law;

The problem arises over the way in which European Community law is enacted in Ireland. EU law is superior to Irish law so when a Directive is handed down from Europe it has to be transposed into Irish law. This is usually done by Statute but also by Statutory Instrument. This is often a ministerial order that’s formally laid before the DÄil and becomes law after 21 sitting days and isn’t formally debated or voted upon by the DÄil. However, there is an important provision within the law that the Irish State cannot impose a criminal sanction by way of a Statutory Instrument unless it had been empowered to do so by primary legislation.

However, it’s turned out that this has been happening for years and now thousands of orders which carry a criminal sanction without expressly being empowered to do so by primary legislation, are being called into question.

Last Wednesday night at the last session of the final sitting of the Dail, the Government attempted to rush through legislation that would retrospectively cover the legal loophole that’s been in place since 1972.

The rushed nature of the legislation was obvious as no copies of the Bill called the European Communities Bill 2006, were available beforehand and at no stage was it flagged to the party whips.

The move was opposed by the opposition parties and now is expected to come before the House in January.

Fine Gael want the section of the Bill that would apply retrospectively to all orders removed and have put forward an amendment to that effect. According to Denis Naughten, the Fine Gael Agriculture spokesman, should the Supreme Court find against the State, it has major implications for legislation dating back to 1972.

The Irish Farmers Journal

Denis Naughten points up the problem we all have with the way our governments use EU laws, and inadvertently makes the real Eurealist argument, when he says “The State assumed massive powers under some of this legislation” This is recognising that the EU allows our governments to ignore their own constitutions and legal statutes and impose their will without parliamentary debate, the EU removes the power of our elected representative to hold the executive to account.

In an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European commission, has said. the EU constitution in its current form will not come into effect. “We should not fool ourselves. It’s important now to maintain its values, its principles and its substance. Above all, we have to improve the decision-making mechanism, and we need to do that as quickly as possible.”

I could I suppose applaud Barroso for making this statement after all I have been against this leap forward of EU integration since the beginning, but I have a nasty feeling that Barroso is saying something else entirely. His recognising that the actually document will not come into force, is not much to crow about, as he wants to maintain “its values, its principles and its substance” and to as “quickly as possible” “improve the decision-making mechanism” There is only one way they know how to improve the decision making mechanism within the EU and that it to remove ability of a member state to stand against a decision which it feels goes against its interests, this can only be done by removing the power of the veto and by extending the requirement for Qualified Majority Voting (QMV).

Scraping the Constitution will effectively remove the necessity for any referendum to be called on the contents of the document but will allow the leaders to institute its values, its principles and its substance by the back door.

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