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Conservative eurosceptics are planning an attempt to force a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty within the next few months, it has been revealed.
Tory MP Douglas Carswell said that he and colleagues are planning to take advantage of a minor technical change to the Treaty to trigger a public vote.
The move would be a headache for Prime Minister David Cameron, who dropped his "cast-iron guarantee" of a referendum on the Treaty after it was ratified into European law last year.
And it would provide an early test of the unity of the new Tory coalition with the strongly pro-European Liberal Democrats.
Mr Cameron's coalition agreement with Lib Dems committed the new Government to a "referendum lock" requiring public approval for any proposed future Treaty that transferred areas of power or competences to Brussels.
The Foreign Office confirmed that primary legislation will be needed to ratify a technical amendment to the Treaty rebalancing the numbers of MEPs from each member-state in line with last year's agreement.
The Lisbon Treaty provided for 12 member states, including the UK, to have a total of 18 additional MEPs, while Germany would lose three. However this could not be put into effect at last year's European Parliament election because the Treaty was not yet in force.
Bringing in the extra MEPs before the next elections in 2014 would require a technical amendment, and the European Council is expected to decide in June whether to press ahead with the change.
"If this protocol is agreed, primary legislation will be needed in the UK to ratify this technical amendment to the Treaty," said the Foreign Office in a statement to the BBC.
"This is a technical change to the Treaty relating to numbers of MEPs and would not transfer any power to the EU."
Copyright © 2010 The Press Association. All rights reserved.
18 comments:
Wont happen for the very simple fact that the Cleggy boy will vote with Labour against such a proposal.
Hope I'm wrong though
Best of luck with that, is all I can say.
They'd be better off having a referendum on the hedge fund thingy, but the problem is that most people think hedge funds are evil and so couldn't care less.
There will be fiddling going on behind the scenes to make sure our political masters get the result they want. As usual, our true feelings on the subject will be ignored. Expect high and strange amounts of postal votes and chaos at the polls, where everybody turns up at 8pm, queues for hours, then mysteriously gets turned away, because of no voting slips etc. It all sounds uncomfortably familiar. You could almost wish for anarchy in the UK.
Quiet_Man said...
Wont happen for the very simple fact that the Cleggy boy will vote with Labour against such a proposal.
Hope I'm wrong though
16 May 2010 19:11
Won't happen because Davey boy is an EU stooge, f*ck all to do with anything else. If it goes to the house dave will make sure it fails and then claim he tried.
As for Clegg, change the vote into a vote on in or out of Europe which Clegg did promise, Dave could get it through if he really wanted, but he won't.
The following people will vote against the referendum.
1. Labour
2. Liberal Democrats
3. Conservatives
This is not mischief making, it is truth.
Hang on, the LibDems have always been for a referendum on EU membership, even despite their Europhile stance.
http://campaigns.libdems.org.uk/europe
That's the one sure thing about the LibDems that Cameron will use to forge an agreement using the one on the AV referendum as a precedent.
Clegg will be able to make an agreement to have a referendum on the issue, and to campaign for allowing the Tories to campaign against.
Naturally, Cameron will prefer to avoid dragging the beast up from the depths and prefer to kick it into the long grass in the hope that he break down resistance over time with policy bribes to malleable Eurosceptics.
Still, the UK going up from 72 to 90 MEPs is going to be interesting... more UKIP and BNP MEPs being a distinct possibility.
I suppose one way of winding up the LibDems would be to have a referendum on having referendums...
Completely OT...I can't get into Tractorstats. What is going on? Anybody know?
Has anyone on here got any fucking sense?
Labour will vote for a referendum with tory rebels, they will have a new leader so no need to defend Browns stance, and they will want to slam a torpedo into a the Lib/Con coalition which a Lisbon treaty referendum campaign would probably utterly destroy.
Get this into your woodentops,you
key tickling freedom fans,you are in the Brussels Gulag,you are
staying in it and there is absolutely nothing you can do about
it unless you are all prepared to
start making MP's lives uncomfortable.Pick out a dozen bogeymen and introduce them to some reality.
I fear it will come to nought. Richard North at EU Referendum believes it is too trivial to require a revisit to the Lisbon Treaty ratification.
I think that you're all missing a trick here. The Eurocrats know that we'll have to have a referendum and they want to get rid of us.
Then the Franco-Germans can reform the EU by getting rid of the PIGS.
If only that were true...
I don't think propping up the French economy will be an easy sell to the German public after the PIGS debacle.
Interesting discussion on this at ConHome.
Have to agree its never going to happen. Remember they didn't respect results when Ireland rejected this treaty they were forced to vote again till they got the result they wanted.
Millions was spent brainwashing the people to give the "right" result second time.
get smart.......and look at ireland now.......stearolloered into the eu ....
bankrupt.......thousands of empty homes....massive cuts in spending and therefore salaries.......
the euro and eu are doomed to fail.....the continent is too diverse.
(thought the 'progressives' were in love with diversity)?
until we stop allowing the phuqwits at the top to herd us like sheep then we will remain as victims....
There will be skulduggery, but at least it will further expose the septic nature of the EU.
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=38059363467&ref=mf
bofl
The Euro and the EU were ALWAYS doomed to fail. It was planned that way.
When it goes tits up (and it may pretty soon), the EUSSR commisars will insist upon MORE power to control members countries fiscal as well as monetary levers. It will destroy the nation state and involve the 'unification' of the Eurozone into one politcial entity.
Mad?? Look at what happened to Ireland. Voted against their Lords and Masters. The whole crumbling edifice of Irish finances was put to the sword and the Irish captured all in one move.
It's going to happen to ALL in the Eurozone. One state, one Government....one civil war?
"Mad??"
Just a touch.
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