Red lines test is the key to Gordon Brown's credibility on Europe
Posted, October 18, 2007 @ 14:00
If Gordon Brown fails to make two key changes to the Reform Treaty today, the so-called red lines will be breached. Without the red lines negotiated by Tony Blair at the Brussels June Summit it will be impossible to deny that the Reform Treaty is substantially the same document as the Constitution. However, if Gordon Brown says the red lines have been successfully protected the UK must be clear what he has achieved, not least because on two key issues it is easy to judge success from failure.
The European Scrutiny Committee suggested last week that the red lines on which the Government bases its case against a referendum will "leak like a sieve" in the field of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Justice and Home Affairs policy. This is because, on the Charter, the Reform treaty does not prevent people from challenging UK law at EU level - and on Justice and Home Affairs, it does not allow the UK to opt-out of decisions made by other member states.
Timothy Kirkhope MEP, Conservative Leader in the European Parliament, said:
"Two simple changes will avoid the UK losing sovereignty in these areas.
On the Charter, Gordon Brown needs to amend Protocol 7 to insert a clarification that 'notwithstanding other provisions in the Treaties or Union law generally' the Charter does not extend the Court's ability to interpret UK law. This will prevent the Court from applying judgments from other countries to our own.
On Justice and Home Affairs, Gordon Brown needs to amend Protocol 10 to re-insert the opt-out from legislation that we secured in the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty and to delete the clause which extinguishes our opt-in rights after five years.
If the Prime Minister fails to achieve these clear and effective amendments he cannot claim to have protected Tony Blair's red lines. He cannot therefore claim that the Reform Treaty is a different document than the Constitution. He cannot therefore claim that his 2005 Manifesto promise to have a referendum on the Constitution is irrelevant."