eurealist.co.uk

Possibly foolhardy but you cannot dispute the chupaz of one Europhile, a certain J D Bovington, Horsforth has issued a challenge to EUsceptics.

He wrote in the Yorkshire Evening Standard apparently for the umpteenth time I challenge eurosceptics to state which new sovereign power is being transferred exclusively to the EU. There is no such transfer! (the Lisbon Treaty)

However J D Bovington, also quoted a House of Lords report (not defined)

A House of Lords committee found that the Constitution didn’t “transfer” any “essential” sovereignty to the competence of the EU, much less the Reform Treaty,

There are two words in that statement that need to be clarified - of course it`s that word “essential” which stands out like a sore thumb - exactly what is essential power to a sovereign nation state - to whom is it essential and who will decide what is essential? And of course transfer also need definition – after all Lord Justice Laws is on record as saying a transfer of power is different from delegated power. The State which delegates power can recall it; the legal claim of power remains in its hands.

Does the Lisbon treaty undermine Justice Laws definition, one would have to assume that up to this point we have only delegated power to the EU as it remains within the authority of the British parliament to repeal the 1972 act of accession.

However the Lisbon treaty does begin the process of curtailing the sovereign right of our parliament. The Lisbon Treaty proposes that our parliament contributes actively to the good functioning of the Union. And of course there is the withdrawal clause which sets out the method by which a member state my leave the union, but by doing so it is also curtailing the power of the British Parliament to exercise its sovereignty. We may leave the union if we follow the procedures set down in the treaty.

The EU scrutiny committee said that our parliament is not a creation of the treaties and its rights are not dependant on the treaties. In other words the treaty cannot presume to control the British Parliament or place legal obstacles in the way of our parliament’s sovereignty because to do so would be taking a step on the road of transferring rights.

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