IPJ On Re-ratification

Cross-posted from IanPJ on Politics:

"In the autumn, Britain will have to re-ratify the Lisbon Treaty. Over in Brussels things are afoot and the first major Foreign Policy act of a new UK Prime Minister will be to go to Brussels to rubber stamp a treaty amendment.

On Election Day the European Parliament will vote to confirm an IGC (Intergovernmental Conference) which will take place on June the 17th and 18th in Brussels.

18 extra MEPs. Parliament will decide whether to allow treaty changes increasing the size of the European Parliament to take place without a full Convention (debate Wednesday, vote Thursday).

In this they are supported by the European Commission

the Commission recommends opening an Intergovernmental Conference as soon as possible, remaining strictly limited to discussion of the Spanish proposal for a protocol amending Protocol No 36 on Transitional Provisions

That IGC will amend the Lisbon Treaty (Protocol 36). This will require that the Lisbon Treaty be re-ratified by all 27 nations of the European Union.

Once the IGC is over, the new version of the protocol as adopted will have to be ratified by the 27 national parliaments.

That means that a new Prime Minister will have to ram a new Lisbon Treaty through both Houses of Parliament.

In order to rush the Treaty through in the first place, the current draft failed to sort out the vexed issue of the distribution of seats in the European Parliament. As a result, there are various imbalances in the number of MEPs held by each country – and there are several “ghost” MEPs who currently work in Brussels but don’t actually have any voting powers.

To sort this out, the European Parliament is expected to vote this Thursday in favour of holding a new Inter Governmental Conference on 17th and 18th June. At that conference, part of the Lisbon Treaty will be rewritten – requiring full ratification again by the Parliament of each and every EU member state.

So, the big question now is:

Will Cameron uphold his pledge for a referendum?

 

Will Clegg uphold the LibDem pledge for a referendum?

Will UKIP make this their Number One priority?

The Albion Alliance will be canvassing candidates yet again to get them to pledge to work for you and promise BEFORE they are elected that they will work for a referendum.

The public remain overwhelmingly in favour of a referendum, the failure to grasp it would not only be astonishingly short-sighted; it would be the final brutal betrayal of the pledges made to the British people in a general election – the election of 2005."

I would repeat an earlier plea to Cameron, Brown & Clegg - Will you honour your previous promises/cast-iron guarantees?