Mini Lecture Notes for the 20th

LECTURE ON THE EU

GD – The Great Deception by Christopher Booker

The founding principles

“the commercial and tariff policy on the European States is so central and crucial a part of their general policy, the receipts from Customs are so central and substantial a part of their revenues, that a common political authority, deciding for all Europe what tariffs should be imposed and how they should be distributed, would be for every country almost as important as, or even more important than, the national Governments, and would in effect reduce the latter to the status of municipal authorities” – Arthur Salter ‘The United States of Europe’ (1931) page 17 of GD.  

“The fusion (of economic functions) would compel nations to fuse their sovereignty into that of a single European State – Jean Monet 1952

"No government dependent upon a democratic vote could possibly agree in advance to the sacrifice that any adequate plan [to build the EU] must involve. The people must be led slowly and unconsciously into their abandonment of their traditional economic defences..."  - Lord (Peter) Thorneycroft,  - A Design for Europe 1948

• Monet’s memoirs
• Monet aimed to merge the coal and steel industries of the original 6 members to create a European State see page 60 GD
• EU was to be supranational/federal as opposed to intergovernmental co-operation between sovereign nation states
• Officials should not be elected and must be not be accountable to national governments so that their first loyalty is to the institution

Link between Monet and the EU

• European Coal and Steel Community/Schuman Plan, European Economic Community, European Community, European Union
• Monet presented his plan to an aid of Schuman (German Foreign Minister) and this formed the basis of the ECSC which ultimately became the EU – p 49-51 GD
• The UK’s labour government at the time determined that it would be contrary to the national interest to join the plan as vital resources would be in the hands of a supranational body p53 GD

Why De Gaulle Kept Britain Out and why the Labour party opposed entry

Chapter 7 GD

• De Gaulle knew that the CAP would be contrary to GB’s national interest and thus this would have to be finalised before GB’s entry.  GB had a more productive agricultural sector and imported more food from outside of the EEC.
• Hugh Gaitskell Labour leader gives a speech repudiating the economic arguments in favour of entry and recognising the supranational implications of the project.

The Deceit of Edward Heath

“There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty.  These fears, I need hardly say are completely unjustified.”  Edward Heath, prime ministerial TV broadcast, January 1973.

• Heath had met Monet and was aware of his intentions p 430 GD
• Werner Committee – p136 GD
• The great fisheries scandal – p145 GD
• Fisherman are expendable – Geoffrey Rippon QC p148 GD
• Direct lie by Rippon – ‘GB retain full jurisdiction of the whole of our coastal waters up to 12 miles’ p 155
• Effect of CFP – UK’s fishing fleet is half the size it was before entry into the EEC

 EC to the EU

• Incremental approach – Treaty creating the European Union was deliberately divided into two stages – The Single European Act and then the Treaty on the European Union
• Maastricht – most heavily whipped votes in history – p290 GD

The current position

• EAW – end to dual criminality.  UK government opts in and out of criminal justice measures without parliamentary approval
• Sceptical of claims of opt outs (remember supranational intentions of EU) – Asylum – acceded to measures, citizens granted asylum in other EU member states have free movement
• Politicians will not reveal when implementing EU law – e.g. ‘giving independence to the Bank of England – Article 108(E) of the Maastricht Treaty
• ECHR now part of EU law – ECHR can prevent deportations, continuing to evolve, e.g. enfranchisement of prisoners, acting as a supreme court overruling parliament
• End to border control
• Europoll – immunity from prosecution, outside national scrutiny – international law and foreign law enforcement
• Common defence policy & rapid reaction force
• Common External Tariff
• Restrictions on state assistance – Post Office    
• Domestic regulation (80% of economy is domestic) – chapter 15 GD – Weights & Measures Act.  Small family butcher put out of business by EC directive 91/497.  Was not allowed to carry meat between his shop and his slaughter house across his yard, he was told to build a refrigerated tunnel and facilities for visiting lorry drivers even though his animals all came from farms less than 5 miles away.