Exposing the EU
Constitution
The EU Constitution will significantly alter the
European Union. If adopted, it will
move the EU even further away from our vision of a free trading,
decentralised, deregulated and democratic Europe of
nation-states.
Click here to read the Bruges
Group's in-depth analysis of the EU Constitution.
It will:
- Compound the EU's economic dislocation by encoding in law the
social-market economic model responsible for the continent's low growth and
high unemployment. Article 14 will allow the EU to standardise the employment
and social policies of member states. Article 7 incorporates into EU law the
Charter of
Fundamental Rights (PDF). This will add new burdens onto British
business.
- Ensure that National Parliaments lose significant powers to the EU
institutions. The right of member states to stop damaging EU legislation will
end, as Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) will be extended into 40 new areas.
The Constitution may even allow for the national veto to be entirely
abolished. In
particular, Article 24.4 (the passerelle clause) and Article 17 (the
flexibility clause) will allow the European Council to extend QMV and the EU's
powers.
- Expand the Union's powers into Justice and Home Affairs. Article 158 gives
the EU power over external border controls and internal security. Article 170
allows the EU with powers to standardise civil law. Articles 171 - 175 allow
for the standardisation of criminal laws and procedure. 176 - 178 will give
the EU powers to co-ordinate policing.
- Develop a common EU foreign and Security Policy. Article 27 will create an
EU Minister for Foreign Affairs who "shall conduct the Union's common
foreign and security policy".
- Make the EU institutions the UK's real government. Article 10 gives
primacy to EU law. Articles 11, 12 & 13 will give the EU the right to forbid
member states from making laws in almost all areas, handing instead even more
power to the remote, unaccountable and undemocratic EU institutions.
The battle to incorporate Britain into a greatly
centralised European Union has begun.
Click here to read the Treaty establishing a Constitution for the
EU (PDF)
Click here to read about the EU
Constitution - in their own words
Download our quick guide leaflet
- The EU Constitution: A threat to jobs
and democracy [PDF]
See below the Bruges Group's in-depth analysis of the EU
Constitution.
|
| |
| Papers |
The euro is failing and will fail without the back-up of political integration
including harmonised taxation and a centrally managed EU-wide fiscal policy.
These measures will be the inevitable consequence of the euro and the EU
Constitution. Despite the claims made by our Government the EU Constitution,
if ratified, will lead to EU-wide tax control and the enforcement of damaging
outmoded economic policies responsible for the high unemployment on the
continent. |
 |
The future of the NHS is an emotive political subject. In this paper, which
has a foreword by Tim Yeo MP, Dr Lee Rotherham details how the future of the
NHS will be directed at an EU level. This is traced through successive
treaties, legal cases and in the Constitutional Treaty. The Constitution
appears set to carry further threats in its Charter of Fundamental Rights. In
short, this paper demonstrates that the EU Constitution establishes this key
public service as an area which national governments will no longer be able to
control: a bombshell that Labour supporters have yet to discover. |
|
The fourth of the Bruges Group’s papers on the draft EU Constitution dissects
the threat it poses to Britain’s legal system. Oliver Letwin argues that it
provides the basis for the gradual transfer of virtually the entire criminal
law from national Parliaments to Brussels. The Criminal Justice provisions
will undermine Britain’s laws, legal system and procedure and the unique
safeguards that have developed in Common Law. Oliver Letwin also critiques the
Government’s slight-of-hand in pretending that the Constitution does not
represent a significant change to Britain’s laws and legal traditions. |
|
The third of the Bruges Group’s papers on the draft EU Constitution studies
the cloak of subsidiarity – the Eurospeak term – used to disguise the
ever-increasing arrogation of powers to the institutions of the European
Union. John Bercow seeks to analyse the history of subsidiarity and rebut the
claim that the EU Constitution safeguards the role of national Parliaments. He
also provides further evidence that the Constitution does not define the
limitations and extent of EU power, but will instead accelerate the EU's
legislative imperialism. |
|
The probable economic consequences of the draft EU Constitution.
Bill Jamieson, economic journalist, author of numerous books and pamphlets,
Executive Editor of The Scotsman and Director of the independent Scottish
think-tank, The Policy Institute, analyses what he sees as the already present
economic disaster of European integration and looks at future
developments |
|
The EU Constitution: It is a muddle. It is dangerous. It is not for us.
The EU Inter-Governmental Conference will begin in Rome on Saturday, 4th.
Therefore, the Bruges Group has commissioned a leading Barrister – Leolin
Price, CBE, QC – to give a legal opinion on the draft |
|
The EU’s possible use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, an integral part
of the Constitution, as an illiberal and authoritarian tool to underpin the
European State, even at the expense of free speech |
| Comment and
Analysis |
EU bureaucracy is burdening sport, just like it has burdened business; and as
the EU seeks to regulate the beautiful game football is now facing a financial
crisis. José Mourinho, the Chelsea Manager, may think that Referees are a
problem but wait until the EU regulations start to bite |
|
Sally McNamara, EU Project Director of the American Legislative Exchange
Council, comments on the implications of the EU Constitution for the United
States of America |
|
The Treaty Establishing a Constitution For the EU: An analysis of the
Constitution that makes the EU into a State |
|
The European Constitution moves 63 areas to QMV compared to only 30 with the
Maastricht treaty. The Labour government has given away the veto in 70 areas
since it came into power and if the European Constitution is ratified the
Labour Government will have given away unanimity in 133 areas |
|
Summit briefing: Analysis of the agenda items discussed at the IGC Summit in
Brussels concluding the negotiations to the EU Constitution
|
|
Constitutional Lawyer, Leolin Price CBE QC, gives a succinct analysis of the
EU Constitution's implications for democracy, self-government and economic
independence. The EU Constitution is a manifesto for a continuing transfer of
power from Member States to the Union |
|
The argument over the inclusion of Christianity in the EU Constitution opens
up the deep fissures in Europe, calls attention to centuries’ old conflicts
and undermines the whole notion of there being one set of European values. Do
we really want a Constitution that wants to regulate even European history |
|
For the sake of the world economy Britain must take a leading role in the EU
and veto the EU Constitution |
|
The EU faces the possibility of the embarrassing failure, especially just
after its biggest ever enlargement, of not being able to agree the EU
Constitution at the supposedly final IGC summit on 17th-18th June. More and
more, it is looking like the baton will have to be passed to the Dutch
Presidency, which starts on 1st July, with a final summit rescheduled for
mid-December. |
|
Tony Blair has little choice but to call a referendum on the EU
Constitution – a referendum he cannot win – the political implications for him
are immense and to not call a referendum will bankrupt the whole legitimacy of
European integration.
A referendum on the EU Constitution in Britain, along with those taking
part on the Continent, will clearly show that many EU member states manifest
destiny is not to be part of a centralised EU.
In essence, the government - and the nation - needs to make plans for the
contingency of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union, not as a result
of a 'big bang' occasioned by a conscious decision to leave, but as part of a
gradual process of realignment. We need credible and realistic alternative
structures and arrangements to replace the EU, ready to put into action as the
need arises.
Tony Blair, bring on the referendum. |
|
The costly 'rights' culture has overwhelmed Britain. The font of this is the
European Union. And the EU Constitution is set to make it worse, it is time
that the tap was switched of at source |
|
The Prime Minister's claims about the EU Constitution are merely a smokescreen
designed to hide the true economic implications of the EU Constitution. In
reality it is a threat to jobs and democracy |
|
Giscard's draft EU Constitution is not federalist. It goes beyond federalism.
It will in fact give enormous powers to unaccountable centralised institutions
which are not, and cannot be, democratic |
|
A legal revolution and the loss of key rights means that the government can no
longer pretend that the EU Constitution is just a 'tidying up exercise'.
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's proposals will create a unitary European state
where civil liberties do not apply |
|
A comprehensive summary of the positions and progress within the
Convention |
| Press
Releases |
The Signing of the EU Constitution: a typically undemocratic day for the EU.
The Constitutional Treaty that Tony Blair signed today is not a tidying up
exercise – it is the latest and biggest step in the creation of a country
called the European Union |
|
Blair has surrendered control over Britain's economic and employment policy.
This undermines democracy and threatens prosperity. It is a strange state of
affairs that in the week when the Labour Party celebrates a 30,000 drop in
unemployment its leader agrees to a Constitution that wil,l if ratified, lead
to the enforcement of policies that are responsible for the high unemployment
in France, Germany and Spain. |
|
Tony Blair has little choice but to call a referendum on the A referendum
on the EU Constitution in Britain, along with those taking part on the
Continent, will clearly show that many EU member states manifest destiny is
not to be part of a centralised EU.
The long term implications of Tony Blair’s failed European policy (trying
to influence integration by capitulation) will be to divide the EU. Tony Blair
has pushed the British people too far. |
|
The UK is increasingly in the position where we cannot take action to improve
health care without first tackling the ‘European’ question
|
|
Oliver Letwin, MP, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer speaking to a Bruges
Group seminar on the economic consequences of the EU Constitution |
|
John Bercow seeks to analyse the history of subsidiarity. He rebutts the claim
that the EU Constitution safeguards the role of national Parliaments, instead
he says that it will accelerate the EU’s legislative imperialism |
|
The probable economic consequences of the draft EU Constitution, the already
present economic disaster of European integration and future developments |
|
The EU Inter-Governmental Conference will begin in Rome on Saturday,
4th.
Therefore, the Bruges Group has commissioned a leading Barrister – Leolin
Price, CBE, QC – to give a legal opinion on the draft |
|
The close of the European Convention
|
|
Future British Governments must become leaders in the quest for a European and
global free-trade association. The positive alternatives to the EU exist and
must be vigorously pursued |
|
At the Thessalonica negotiations Tony Blair must veto Valéry Giscard
d’Estaing’s plans and push for the positive alternative of a Europe of
co-operating, democratic and freetrading nation-states FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
20th JUNE 2003
|
|
Comment on Valery Giscard d'Estaing's plans for European Union FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE 26th MAY 2003 |
| Speeches |
Gisela Stuart MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Birmingham Edgbaston and the
UK's representative on the Praesidium of the Convention on the Future of
Europe opposes and exposes the EU Constitution |
|
Jeffrey Donaldson, MP, MLA Democratic Unionist MP for Lagan Valley discusses
how the Labour Government will use the same tricks to sell the EU Constitution
as they did the Belfast Agreement |
|
Britain is approaching decision time. Will Britain follow a free and global
future or become an EU Province? This International Conference focused on the
EU Constitution and the UK's Role in Europe and the World.
Speeches include:
- Hynek Fajmon MP, Czech Republic - A View from New Europe
- Lord Blackwell, Chairman, Centre for Policy Studies
- The European Constitution and the Future of Europe
- Christopher Booker - The European Project
- Ruth Lea - The EU Constitution. The economic, business & political
implications
- Barry Legg - An End to Illusions?
|
|
Speech by Bill Jamieson, Editor of the Scotsman, to a Bruges Group seminar in
the Seldon Room, Institute of Economic Affairs, 2 Lord North Street London
SW1. Tuesday, October 28th 2003. |
|
The Rt Hon. Oliver Letwin, MP, Shadow Home Secretary, discussed the draft EU
Constitution and Criminal Justice |
|
Professor Patrick Minford, CBE, economist and author of 'The Cost of Europe'
lectured on the economic consequences of EU membership and the EU
Constitution |
| Interviews |
Bruges Group Associate Members question David Heathcoat-Amory MP on the
Convention on the Future of Europe
|
| International |
Dr Helen Szamuely takes a look at the international developments following on
from Tony Blair's visit to Eastern Europe |
| Donate |
The EU Constitution: A threat to jobs and democracy
We need your support to expose and oppose the EU Constitution
Please support our plans to fight Giscard's Constitution
We will be extremely grateful if you could make a donation to our campaign.
All funds will be specifically earmarked for the exposing and opposing of the
EU Constitution. Please send a cheque made payable to:
Exposing the EU Constitution Fund
And send it to:
The Bruges Group, 216 Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street, London W1B 5TB
UK |
