Brown set to sidestep issue of a referendum

published 4 September 2007

Gordon Brown faces a growing party split over Europe. More than 120 Labour MPs want a referendum on the new EU reform treaty. It's hardly surprising, said William Hague in The Times. Not even the deliberate legal obfuscation of the new treaty can mask the fact that it is essentially the old EU constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters two years ago. Most European leaders have admitted as much and even Brown publicly referred to it as the constitution' after a meeting with a Bertie Ahern (only for officials to hastily add that he meant to say Reform Treaty'). As for the famous red lines', our Government's safeguards are much more flimsy than they would have us believe.

They certainly are, said Daniel Hannan in The Daily Telegraph. The EU will receive "the characteristics that international law recognises as attributes of statehood": a head of state, a foreign office, a criminal justice system and the legal personality needed to sign treaties in international associations. Those who don't think the treaty will affect our power to govern ourselves should look at the small print, says Christopher Booker, also in The Daily Telegraph. Take Article 69, which obliges the EU to abolish any controls on persons, whatever their nationality, when crossing internal borders'. In other words, if millions of Turks, Russians or Somalis managed to enter any part of the EU, the British Government would be powerless to stop them from entering Britain and staying here. Quite, said Hague. Openness and accountability are favourite themes of Brown's, yet he now proposes to break a "solemn manifesto promise and deny the British people their say over who governs Britain and how it is governed". How is a referendum going to help?, asks the FT. The goal of the pro-referendum camp is "either withdrawal or a do-nothing Union. Neither serves the national interest". Neither the Single European Act nor the Maastricht treaty attracted a referendum here, though their projects were altogether grander. True, the substance of the treaty is largely intact, but it "does not disturb the hybrid nature of the EU, which balances intergovernmental cooperation with supranational powers". In reality, Europe has become a "continent of several speeds" and will stay that way: with 27 members, how could it otherwise?

Brown is unlikely to change his mind on the referendum, said Irwin Stelzer in The Sunday Times. He could put the "issue to rest" by stating in his new manifesto that Parliament can decide. He is confident that "even those voters who know he is wrong will make their decisions based on other issues" like health and education. A snap general election this autumn is possible, said The Daily Telegraph. Brown could capitalise on his political honey-moon and the row over the treaty would be sidelined by an election campaign. Economic uncertainty "argues for haste". He must be "sorely tempted".