No EU Superstate
Apparently there is disagreement about the EU Constitution’s death. I thought it was being revived under dishonest auspices as do Daniel Hannan and Richard Ashworth (MEPs for the South East of England — aka the South East England Region) as is evidenced by this from Mr Ashworth’s recent newsletter:
It seems that in the EU, an issue is never really dead and buried. Look at the constitution, for example. The Austrian presidency of the EU is now trying to revive this discredited document from its coma. We thought the French and the Dutch had killed it off - and many EU politicians will admit as much in private - but there are plenty of people who want to keep their vision of the EU’s future alive.
Sadly fellow Tory MEP James Elles doesn’t know what is good for England as he says:
Since in the July 2005 issue of In-Touch when I first responded to allegations that policies enshrined in the failed constitutional Treaty are still being implemented, further claims to that end have created concern among many of you.
It is being alleged that several European agencies are still being created despite the treaty’s rejection, and that this represents a further move towards a European super-state, taking away authorities of the member states. The truth is that almost all the agencies in question were created and then became operational well before the constitutional treaty was drawn up.
Several of these institutions mentioned repeatedly were set up in the mid-1990s, such as the European Environment Agency (1990), the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (1993), the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction or the Community Plant Variety Office (1995). Others, as for instance the European Centre for Development of Vocational Training, became operational as early as 1975.
Now it’s always nice to have a balance of good MEPs and europhillic MEPs but not in one party. Let’s make the Conservative Party unambiguous — European Integrationist hyperbole is incompatible with basic and fundamental Conservative principles. It is like Osama Bin Laden heading Liberty or Neil Kinnock, the Institute of Directors… Conservatives should be eurosceptic (even if only mildly) by dint of their underlying ideology. To be otherwise suggests either megalomania on their part or genuine naivete…
And this is the problem with PR… I would vote for Daniel Hannan and Richard Ashworth directly but not James Elles or James Provan…
In case you think my one quote was taken out of context and I am being unfair on Mr Elles, consider this piece of sublime understatement:
We all know that the EU has weaknesses in its financing system and is by no means as transparent in accountability terms as we Conservatives would like.
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