IMAGINE! Britain's Conservative Party, Trade Union Congress and United Kingdon Independence Party find themsleves in the same bed together. What on earth unites them? Europe, of course, but not because they share a principled policy towards it but because they see the EU Reform Treaty as an issue on which they can take opportunistic advantage of the government to press their differing agendas. Each of them wants Gordon Brown to agree to a referendum on the Treaty in line with Tony Blair's 2005 election pledge to hold one on the EU Constitution. As I argued on Tuesday in this space the Constitution is not the Treaty and no amount of pretending that it is will make it so.
On Wednesday the TUC voted in favour of a referendum, not out of any democratic impulse, but because several unions feel that the government has opted-out of important provisions in the Treaty for a social model benefitting employees' rights and conditions. In other words, they want more of the Treaty, not less. The Conservative right wants a referendum because it sees it as a last ditch opportunity to stop the progress to a unified Europe initiated and developed by Edward Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major in three previous treaties. What UKIP wants is anyone's guess but it's probably not all that important.
On Tuesday I said that the Reform Treaty is the Big Issue of the moment. But what about Iraq, Darfur, Iran, Russia, China and Climate Change? These long-term matters have not gone away but the future of the European Union may well depend on the outcome of negotiations on the Reform Treaty already under way and due to be completed before the end of this year. The aim is to have a Treaty in place well before the EU parliamentary elections early in 2009 so that the electorate will have an understanding of the issues it is asked to vote about. Although other EU member states, such as Denmark and Ireland, may decide to hold referendums on the Treaty, the great majority will seek approval through parliamentary procedures, as Gordon Brown intends to do in Britain in conformity with his three Conservative predecessors. In 2005 Tony Blair committed himself to a referendum on a proposal for a constitution which no longer exists. However in June, at the most recent EU summit, he agreed to support a Reform Treaty on the understanding that Britain would exercise red line opt-outs from provisions that might be thought to limit or touch on Britain's sovereign rights. An example was the Charter of Fundamental Rights, an important provision of the Reform Treaty from which Britain (disgracefully, some think) has excused itself; there were others on defence, foreign policy and the European Court. Therefore, Britain pledged itself to approval of a Reform Treaty which recognises certain important British reservations; Gordon Brown has endorsed this pledge and to go back on it would do a great disservice to the European ideal. If progress towards approval of the Reform Treaty founders in the next three months it will be difficult to revive it in time for the European elections in 2009, or at all. A serious flaw in the position of the Conservatives on the Treaty is that it deals with many of the imperfections of the EU that arise from the fact that as an organisation of 27 members it is still functioning with procedures designed for a membership of twelve. Reform is esential and overdue.
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