EU Summit progress:
DavidCameron, who wants to reform the UK's membership of the EU before holding an in/out referendum of the British public by the end of 2017, tweeted that "significant progress" had been made in Brussels at this week's EU summit.
The prime minister, who is does not want to undermine his negotiating position by being too explicit about what concession he might or might not be willing to make, has not set out in full detail what he wants but his key demands include:
Downing Street has said the prime minister remains committed to "proper, full-on treaty change" but it has acknowledged this is unlikely by the end of 2017 since it would trigger referendums in other EU countries as well.
The BBC says the UK government is understood to be seeking "legally-binding" guarantees by the time of the referendum that EU treaties would be changed at some point in the future.
The prime minister, who is does not want to undermine his negotiating position by being too explicit about what concession he might or might not be willing to make, has not set out in full detail what he wants but his key demands include:
- An opt-out on the core EU aim of "ever closer union"
- The sovereignty of national parliaments to be boosted, so groups of them can block proposed EU legislation
- Safeguard the City of London and other financial centres outside the eurozone
- Curb EU immigration by cutting benefits
- Make the EU more streamlined and competitive
Downing Street has said the prime minister remains committed to "proper, full-on treaty change" but it has acknowledged this is unlikely by the end of 2017 since it would trigger referendums in other EU countries as well.
The BBC says the UK government is understood to be seeking "legally-binding" guarantees by the time of the referendum that EU treaties would be changed at some point in the future.
Comments
An opt-out on the core EU aim of "ever closer union"
that indeed is the core EU aim, its what the EU is. Now to obtain this would require a far bigger treaty change than an Article 48 Fudge, watch out on this bit for "Jam Tomorrow"
But here is the second paragraph of Article 1 TEU
"This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among
the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as
closely as possible to the citizen. "
The rest are very very woolly that its dificult to comment on, as they don't make sense with out the specific content. also its not possible to judge if the "re-negotiation" is successful or not if we don't know what terms will sought.
its like me saying "Chris, give me £150 and I will go into town and buy you some stuff"
Shoud you even bother taking note of that offer, you would at least, quite rightly, ask - "what 'stuff' do you intend to buy Jim?"
so after a while i answer with "some stuff for the house, and some stuff for the car, will also pick up some stuff for the garden"
Then when i get back from town for your money you now have a sweeping brush, thats it. But hey, it can be used to sweep the kitchen floor, clean the cars wheels and sweep the garden paths - so I got what i told you I was getting.
Basically they wanted an EU Constitution, but it was rejected in referendums in both France and The Netherlands. So they took the constitution, removed all the constiutional language, then they wrote the treaty of Lisbon, an unreadable treaty, which amends the Treaty of European Untion and parts of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, so they became the constitiution.
I say "unreadable" because Lisbon was in its self, its an amending treaty, so the only way to read it is to take TEU and TFEU, then go through Lisbon amending the others as you go, then read through the others to see whats in it and where it goes (where it goes gives you the context)
Because the treaty was an amending treaty, not a new one, it did not require referendums (well every where execpt Ireland, and I would still argue the UK)
but even in the case of the Irish, the referendum was granted and lost, so they just had to keep on having referendums until one of them produced a "yes" then that one is the permanent answer