Tuesday 26 October 2010

A Sacred Prerogative Of A Nation State

The Telegraph reports that Janusz Lewandowski, the European budget commissioner, has said that his recent proposals to finance the EU through VAT, carbon, aviation or financial transaction taxes would touch on "holy" elements of national sovereignty.The article quotes Lewandowski:
"It needs ratification because it is prerogative of a national state to set its own taxes. No taxation without representation – it must be ratified......This is a sacred prerogative of national parliaments."
To a certain extent this is a spurious point to raise as besides taxation it must be a condition of any nation which wishes to be classified as a democracy that that nation decides any matter which affects it - be that taxation, defence, foreign policy, law & the judiciary, environment, transport or employment, as examples.

Again, the Telegraph falls into the trap of quoting Cameron's promise of a "Referendum Lock" which would prevent the future transfer of power as if this 'lock' were in place - which it is not. Logically, how can Cameron be held to his promise of a referendum on any future transfer of power if there is no Act of Parliament?

Still on the subject of prerogatives of nation states it is also worth remembering that not one of the 27 Member States is any longer a nation. With the coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1st December 2009, members of the European Parliament, who previously had been "representatives of the peoples of the States brought together in the Community" (Art 189 TEC), became "representatives of the union's citizens (Art 14 TEU). This change in the legal status of MEPs is but one illustration of the constitutional revolution brought about by the Lisbon Treaty. Lisbon, like the EU Constitution before it, established for the first time a European Union which is constitutionally separate from and superior to its Member States. As a result the 27 Member States thereby lost their character as true sovereign States - constitutionally they became nothing more than regional states in a multinational Federation.

For Tory backbenchers to demand that the Prime Minister "repatriate" powers from Brussels in return for going along with German and French requests to change the EU's Lisbon Treaty in order to prevent future euro zone debt crises, is again irresponsible reporting in that there is no 'procedure' for repatriating powers - and in any event the EU will not return powers to Member States as it would be in direct contradiction of the EU's stated aim of "ever closer union".

Whatever the outcome of Cameron's summit meeting in three days time, there is one point on which you can bet your last penny. The British people will, as has happened on every occasion previously, be 'stitched-up' and told they have won a famous victory!

5 comments:

TheBoilingFrog said...

Ironically WfW the more the EU integrates the earlier our exit will be. Keep going Cameron, go on.

I've always looked at it as sacrificing the Bishop to win checkmate.

Witterings from Witney said...

Sod the bloody Bishop TBF, Its all those blue and yellow 'pawns' that I want sacrificed - and they can choose the method of their demise. Hamp or AK47, I care not!E

TheBoilingFrog said...

Yes yes WfW but I don't want to see you in jail picking up the soap.

Incidentally you can buy automatic guns in certain pubs in Reading (down Oxford Road). Not of course that I'm suggesting anything.

TTC said...

Justy butting in before heading over to Captain Ranty's latest freeman themed post, but would these guns be the same ones that the Bill of Rights says that a Protestant is lawfully entitled to carry?

And is that one of the reasons why the political classs pretend we do not have a written constitution when we do..?

I'm not a Protestant or anything else religion wise, so I'm not entitled... but I thought it was worth mentioning, anyway.

TC

Unknown said...

The reason France and Germany want to amend the Lisbon Treaty isn't to prevent a future euro crisis it is to legalise the one we've already had. They know that the bailouts were in contravention of the treaty but that's ok as long as they can legalise it retrospectively.

So what do you think would stop them going ahead with their direct taxation plans and then just doing the same again. Cameron either hasn't got a clue or is desperate to cover up what a lot of us already know. It's far too late to do anything. We can only wait and hope the whole thing implodes on itself. And it will.