Sunday, April 29th, 2007
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absinthomaniac
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Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: in a green universe
Posts: 6,924
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Most Britons want looser ties to Europe
Quote:
Most Britons want looser ties to Europe
By Melissa Kite and Liam Halligan, Sunday Telegraph
29/04/2007
An overwhelming majority of people want a referendum on Britain's relationship with Europe and the possibility of "loosening" ties.
A new poll has found that 69 per cent of Britons would like to vote on the proposal that the UK should have a looser relationship with Europe, maintaining free trade and co-operation on common policies, but opting out of political and economic integration.
Only 27 per cent said they wanted the UK to stay a full European Union member on current terms, participating in further integration, according to the ICM survey for the Centre for Policy Studies.
Asked to chose their "ideal relationship", 36 per cent said that the UK should have a looser arrangement with Europe and 29 per cent said the UK should withdraw from the EU altogether. Asked whether there should be a referendum on loosening ties, 69 per cent said yes and 22 per cent said no.
The poll comes amid mounting fears that Tony Blair is preparing to introduce a scaled-down European constitution by the "back door" before he quits as Prime Minister this summer.
A summit in Brussels on June 21 will be Mr Blair's last appearance on the European stage and could tie the hands of future leaders on key European issues if he agrees the basic outline of a new treaty. Such a move would leave his successor to oversee negotiations and ratification by Parliament. The Conservatives have accused the Government of trying to introduce the constitution by the back door.
Interviewed in today's Sunday Telegraph, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, rejected this argument. "I am astonished that people in the UK think that ratification by Parliament is ratification by the back door," he said.
"Your Parliament is not the equivalent of a back door - it is the mother of all Parliaments. This is the country which invented Parliamentary democracy. You cut off your King's head to establish the sovereignty of Parliament.
"To say your Parliament is the back door is to say it is not representative - and I have to say, I personally find that rather incredible."
Mr Blair fuelled fears of a back door treaty earlier this month when he said he did not believe a referendum would be needed on a new European treaty bringing in the less controversial aspects of the constitution, which was rejected in referendums in France and Holland.
Since then EU leaders have been looking at ways of introducing many key elements of it by amending existing treaties.
Germany, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, has confirmed talks will go beyond setting a timetable for a new European treaty and has sent a questionnaire to all of Europe's capitals asking for feedback on a 12-point checklist of controversial points from the constitution.
Britain, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic have all called for elements that have constitutional trappings to be dropped in order to avoid it having to be ratified by referendum. But the 18 EU countries that have already ratified, or largely ratified, the constitution will resist fundamental change.
ICM Research interviewed a random sample of 1,006 adults aged 18 and over. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
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[source]
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Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matt 7, 6)
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Go raimh maith agat, Eire!
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