An interesting piece on the Constitution negotiations has gone up on the European Voice website (subscription only).
It reports that the UK is becoming "the most difficult member state" in the talks. Apparently the Government is opposing the creation of a "legal personality" for the EU - which is being made a "red line" issue by the Germans. As has already been reported the UK is also opposed to the Charter having legal force, to giving up more national vetoes and to collapsing the pillar structure (which would hugely increase the power of ECJ judges and the Commission).
What is interesting is that apparently the French are saying that in return for the Charter's omission, and the deletion of EU symbols from the text- such as the flag and the anthem - the UK needs to give way on majority voting. A spokesman for Sarkozy said, “Blair can be bold on qualified majority if there is nothing on the charter and the Union’s symbols”.
We doubt that the UK Government will sign up to anything that abolishes more national vetoes. But one thing is certain; they won't get their way without a fight. Time after time in EU negotiations Blair showed he wasn't up to it; can Brown deliver where Blair failed?
3 comments:
Is the UK really "the most difficult" Member State in the discussions so ffar? Or is this just what the German Presidency is briefing the ever-complaisant European Voice to put out?
Indeed -- unlike the Poles, the UK is not threatening to 'die' to accomplish its negotiating objectives. Since the issue of distributing voting weights in the Council (ie the main issue for the Poles) was the most difficult political issue in the last three IGCs (concerning the Amsterdam, Nice and Constitutional Treaties), and in fact proved impossible to settle at Amsterdam, and moreover killed the Constitutional Treaty negotiations at one point (Dec. 2003), it will hardly be surprising if this issue is the most difficult to settle in any revived negotiations. In fact I predict this issue will not be settled at the June summit, but instead will be left for the summit at the end of the forthcoming IGC to deal with.
The voting weight will definitely be a tricky one. We disuss it more on our latestpost
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