Home - SR Editions - Socialist Resistance No.47

As rejected EU constitution rides again

Put it to a referendum!

Alan Thornett

In his recent meeting with German Prime Minister Angela Merkel, Gordon Brown has made it clear that the re-presented EU constitution resurrected in the form of a treaty will not be put to a referendum - as promised by Labour in 2004 - but will simply be put to Parliament.

Brown’s stance recognises that people will not be taken in by this slight of hand, which comes alongside a shift to the right in European politics with the elections of Merkel and Sarkosy, and that the chances of winning a referendum would be more or less impossible in Britain and difficult elsewhere.

Having been defeated in referendums in France and Holland last year EU leaders have changed the name of the constitution and juggled with some of the wording. Now they are presenting it again for acceptance, arguing that since it is no longer a constitution, therefore troublesome referendums are no longer necessary. Only in Ireland is such a referendum currently scheduled.

In Britain the Tory right have been allowed to make the running on the issue with the left having little to say.

It is therefore doubly important that the RMT and the GMB unions have put resolutions on the issue on the agenda of thins year’s TUC Congress calling for a referendum. These initiatives should be fully supported in the unions and more broadly

As the RMT resolution rightly says, nothing of substance has changed between this draft and the previous incarnation. It is the old rejected constitution smuggled back in with a few cosmetic changes.

The treaty would set in stone the neoliberal management of the European economy.

It would consolidate a Europe in which the decisions of elected Parliaments (with all their limitations) are handed over to an unelected bureaucracy. It would institutionalise the EU’s democratic deficit through increasing the voting power of the biggest and most powerful member states.

We want a Europe free from the neo-liberal polices of the WTO and the IMF, free from NATO, free from foreign military bases - a Europe free from weapons of mass destruction.

We want a Europe which respects the cultural, religious, political, and personal choices of its citizens. We want a Europe which rejects nationalism and xenophobia, which bases itself on internationalism and supports the struggles of the oppressed and which protects the environment and challenges climate chaos.

The GMB resolution raises the issue of Britain ’s opt-out of the new charter of fundamental rights, which does not have much to offer at the European level - it has no reference to the right to strike or protection against unfair dismissal - but is better than the situation which exists in Britain .

Paul Kenny the general secretary of the GMB told the Guardian: “GMB members are sick and tired of being treated as second class citizens in Europe . If these rights are good enough for the French, German and Spanish workers they are good enough to apply to UK workers too”.

Overall the RMT resolution (see below) is stronger, in particular because it calls for the General Council to campaign for a no vote in any referendum.

The debate on this issue could spell some tension inside Unite, since the T&G are very likely to support these resolutions while the Amicus side of the merger does not call either for a referendum or for a no vote in one.

While these resolutions must stand a very good chance of getting through Congress, that would only be the beginning of the battle.

The TUC leadership is notoriously pro-EU as they have sought to get some crumbs from the EU table on trade union rights having given up any serious attempt to re-establish any here.

So if either resolution were passed, there would need to be concerted pressure to get it implemented

The left inside and outside the trade unions should open a campaign for a referendum, and for a no vote in it, and create a progressive alternative to the xenophobic right.

There are fundamental working class issues involved and there has to be a working class voice in the debate around it.

RMT resolution to TUC 2007

Congress notes the proposals in the new EU Reform Treaty are substantially the same as the EU constitution rejected by the French and Dutch electorates in 2005. Indeed the French architect of the Constitution, Valery Giscard d’Estaing stated the new EU treaty would be “very very near to the original.”

The Treaty includes

• changing the European Union from an intergovernmental arrangement into a state with a single legal personality and corporate existence
• form a centralised government and include an EU President, a Foreign Minister called a High Representative, a diplomatic service and an EU Public Prosecutor.
• give further powers to EU institutions including the European Court of Justice and European Central Bank
• give the EU power to change itself without further treaties or referendums
• consolidate the single market and the drive to privatise public services
• further militarise the EU
• abolish Britain's veto over transport and many other areas

At the 2005 General Election all three main political parties promised a referendum on such changes. Congress therefore calls on the government to hold an urgent referendum on the EU reform Treaty and for the General Council to also vigorously campaign for a referendum

Congress also urges the General Council to campaign for a ‘No’ vote in line with the Congress policy decided in 2005 Finally the General Council is also urged to campaign for this position within the ETUC.