Jan 19th 2006 - EU in denial; refusal to accept the demise of the European Constitution

EU in denial; refusal to accept the demise of the European Constitution

Thursday, Jan 19th 2006

In yesterday's commentary I mentioned several speakers who refuse to acknowledge that the proposed constitution is dead. We are now engaged in debating a serious attempt to revive it via a joint report, the Duff/ Voggenhuber report. Andrew Duff is a UK MEP, Lib-Dem, Eastern region; Johannes Voggenhuber is an Austrian of the Green Party. We know that the Greens' view of democracy is not exactly the same as ours, but Duff seems to be a democrat who does not believe that the will of the people of France and Holland, as expresssed freely and fairly through the ballot box, is to be accepted. 

Be not surprised that the two hour debate yesterday afternoon was full of MEPs, claiming to represent the people, but who who also rejected these democratic ballots. In vain did Ind-Dem speakers remind them that the French and Dutch people had spoken, and that the existing treaties require that any amendment to the treaties can only occur when approved by all member states. Jens-Peter Bonde informed them that the referendums in these two countries were conducted according to their own national constitutions, as required in the Treaty of Rome. Roger Knapman spoke in the same vein, as did Nils Lundgren.

Perhaps the pick of the MEPs ranged against us, and against democracy, was Richard Corbett, Lab, Yorkshire. His pearl of wisdom was, "France and Holland did not say no to the constitution, they opened a period of reflection". Thus is the great debate conducted, thus is the fate of nations decided.

However, a surprise. The Duff report is not liked by the governments of Germany, Austria and Finland who have written to President Borrell to say that it goes much too far!  

Today, Thursday, the vote on the Duff/ Voggenhuber report was taken. Within it an amendment stating that the Constitution is null and void due to the French & Dutch referendums was defeated by 107 votes to 452. Be not surprised, therefore, that the whole report was passed by 385 votes to 125. (In Jan 2005 when the constitution was first up for approval there were 137 votes against it. Today's result is on a par with that since some MEPs always go home before Thursday). It is worth noting that the UK Tories took very little part in the 30+ votes taken by show of hands during the report, but came to life for the 10 or so electronic votes. 

UKIP members will be interested to hear of Parliament's attitude towards us. Most of the votes in Parliament are by show of hands and if the Chairman has any doubt in calling the result he has an electronic check made. Members also call for a check if they do not accept the Chairman's judgement, quite a common occurrence. Today, in an series of votes on Sugar Reform, there were many calls for a check on the vote, quite a few coming from UKIP. A Tory MEP, Christopher Beazley, Eastern Region, rose on a point of order to ask the chairman to disregard UKIP's calls for electronic checks! The Chairman responded that any MEP was entitled to ask for a check. I therefore rose on a point of order asking the Chairman that, given his response, would he please confirm that there were no second class citizens in this assembly. He simply ignored my request and passed on to the next vote.   

I hope this answers any UKIP member who may harbour illusions as to the Tory attitude towards us. It also dispels any thought of the EU being even handed; they will put us down whenever they can get away with it. The real point is that they just do not understand the principle of democratic opposition. Enough reason to want out I would think.

Derek Clark   MEP UKIP East Midlands                                                                       

Strasbourg, Jan 19th 2006