BRITAIN appears to have secured its celebrated “red lines” in the European constitution, but at a cost.
The Government will not be able to stop other European Union countries co-operating even more closely in every area of EU policymaking, except on foreign and security issues. The draft treaty negotiated in Brussels yesterday makes possible a two-speed Europe and is meant to stop a minority of governments preventing most of the 25 members from continuing with integration.
While Tony Blair succeeded in blocking moves to end national vetoes on fiscal policy, he had to give ground on the Government’s other key objective of keeping unanimity on criminal justice issues and social security measures for migrant workers. The latest version of the constitution introduces majority voting on criminal justice co-operation, but allows Britain to opt out of initiatives that it sees as not in the interests of its legal system. In exchange, its EU partners would be able to decide on a majority vote to press ahead with the controversial measures without Britain.
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Similarly, the constitution introduces limited majority voting for legislation affecting migrant workers. Although the Government can apply a new brake by asking EU leaders to intervene if it fears that the draft legislation would fundamentally affect its social security system, it cannot insist that the text be formally dropped.
In some areas, the constitution strikes a careful balance between keeping national vetoes and introducing majority voting. Thus, the Government can successfully oppose the creation of a European public prosecutor to tackle crimes affecting the EU’s finances, but once the office is up and running, only a majority decision would be required to extend its powers to investigate other cross-border serious crimes.
The same principle is being introduced for common foreign and security policy issues. The initial strategy decision would be taken by all 25 EU countries, but majority voting would be sufficient for its practical implementation.
Despite the arguments over the Government’s red lines, agreement has been quietly reached during the negotiations on moving from unanimity to majority voting in almost 30 policy areas. In last year’s White Paper on the constitution, the Government confirmed that it welcomed this decision to use majority voting as the general rule for legislative proposals. The most significant of these will cover asylum and immigration policy, where the EU is playing an increasing role.
Most of the changes are intended to make it easier to make senior appointments and to change the statutes of institutions such as the European Central Bank and the European Court of Justice.
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The move away from unanimity will also greatly increase the powers of the European Parliament. The constitution will give MEPs equal rights with EU governments in approving all legislation subject to majority voting.
The constitution would significantly change the EU’s structure. It would enable the creation of the post of President of the European Council. The incumbent would provide continuity to EU policy by preparing and chairing meetings of EU leaders and ensuring that their decisions are acted upon.
It also provides for an EU foreign minister, combining the roles of Javier Solana, the foreign policy representative, and Chris Patten, the External Affairs Commissioner.
The constitution would give national parliaments a role, albeit limited, in the EU decision-making process. If a sufficient number think the Commission has overstepped the mark and is encroaching on national powers with a legislative proposal, they can ask — but not insist — that it be amended or withdrawn.
The treaty ends the practice of giving each member-state one commissioner, in order to prevent the institution from becoming too unwieldy as more countries join.
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The constitution, which runs to several hundred pages, has failed the initial test set by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, of being a slim document that could be fitted into a pocket. But it has gone some way towards bringing some order to the Union’s many treaties. For the first time, their content has been assembled into a single document. The constitution also reduces the number of complex EU decision-making processes from more than a dozen to just a handful.
The EU would also formally possess its own legal personality — a move that would not give it a right to be represented on organisations such as the United Nations, but is designed to enable it to negotiate and sign treaties without these having to be ratified by national parliaments as well.
The preamble, which sets out the Union’s basic principles, abolishes the celebrated — or notorious — reference to member states working towards “an ever closer union”. It replaces this with the aim of transcending ancient divisions “and, united ever more closely, to forge a common destiny”.