DM backs new People's Pledge campaign for an EU referendum

by Marc Glendening

You may have read over the past week about an exciting new initiative to force a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU - called the
People's Pledge.

We've received many enquiries about it in recent days, so I'm pleased to report that the Democracy Movement is enthusiastically backing this new campaign.

Launched last week in the futuristic setting of the Altitude 360 venue on the 29th floor of Millbank Tower, Westminster, the People's Pledge is a potent new all-party campaign to secure a referendum on whether we wish to be ruled by those we elect to Westminster - or by the unaccountable institutions of the European Union.

Broad support

The campaign has assembled an impressive spectrum of supporters include John Cryer MP (Labour), Zac Goldsmith MP (Conservative), Jenny Jones AM (London Assembly Member, Green party), Marta Andreasen MEP (UKIP & former EU chief accountant), among many others.

It's chaired by businessman John Mills (Chairman, JML Group) and the director is Mark Seddon, ex editor of Tribune magazine and former member of the Labour National Executive Committee.

The prominent economist Ruth Lea is also a supporter, as are writers Fay Weldon CBE, Virginia Ironside and John King.

The campaign has the support not only of those who are opposed to, or sceptical about, the EU. It's also backed by those who are committed to Britain's continued EU membership - such as Keith Vaz, the former Europe minister and John Stevens, the former Conservative MEP - but who nevertheless acknowledge that the people should decide.

Unique pressure

But it's the campaign's strategy that really sets it apart from all previous referendum efforts and gives it a great chance of success.

The People's Pledge asks voters to pledge that they will only vote for a candidate at the next general election who promises to support a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU and to vote for it in the House of Commons.

Numbers of people signing the Pledge in each constituency will be displayed on the campaign's website alongside the MP's majority. This unique feature of the campaign will pile the pressure on MPs and their rival candidates, by enabling them to see exactly the strength of feeling in their area for the right to have a say on the EU - and how many votes they stand to gain, or lose, as a result of their stance on the issue.

The campaign's sophisticated website will also record and display each MP's voting record on all EU-related issues, available for any voter to look up using only their postcode, and will finally enable voters to hold their MP to account for their actions on the EU.

Local campaigns

From now until the next general election, through both national and local activities particularly in the marginal seats, supporters of the People's Pledge will be challenging MPs and their rival prospective candidates to declare their support for a referendum.

This campaign therefore presents a new and innovative way to harness and focus 'People Power' towards bringing about change in Britain's relationship with the EU. It's about pressuring the political elite into giving us what they have long denied us; a say on the future of our political system.

With the passing of the EU Constitution/Lisbon treaty, and with a new forthcoming EU treaty designed to establish what Angela Merkel calls 'European economic governance', it is now clear that we as a people have to make a choice: Are we to be governed centrally from Brussels in a growing range of key policy areas or, instead, do we wish an alternative democratic future for our country?

Sign the People's Pledge

We're urging all our supporters to sign the People's Pledge and to encourage as many others as they know to do so as well.

While the People's Pledge will make the case for people to be consulted about the EU's powers, it will not take sides on whether Britain should be 'in' or 'out'. That's why, while working closely with the People's Pledge to secure a referendum, the Democracy Movement and other EU-critical groups will also continue independently to make the case for Britain to forge a new, genuinely co-operative relationship with our European neighbours that, unlike the EU, respects democracy.

When the People's Pledge is successful in securing that referendum, we who want change must ensure we are in a position to WIN it!

So look out for more information here soon about how the DM will be taking forward the case for a referendum by supporting the People's Pledge - and promoting a new vision for Britain outside and beyond the confines of EU membership.

People's Pledge campaign for an EU referendum

The Daily Mail today gives major coverage to the looming launch of a new organisation called the People's Pledge.

Under the headline, Give us a vote on our future in Europe, the Mail reports that this new cross-party campaign aims to "pile pressure on party leaders and MPs to support a poll that would settle the divisive question of EU membership once and for all."

An online version of the article can be seen on the Daily Mail website here.

The People's Pledge is a unique and potent new initiative, which the DM is very pleased to be supporting. More information about the campaign will follow in the next few days.

Britain still vulnerable to euro crisis

by Marc Glendening

British taxpayers risk losing £8 billion if, as many are now predicting, Greece defaults on the EU/IMF loan in which we were forced to participate back in May last year.

Britain has being sucked into the current crisis affecting the eurozone under Article 122 of the Lisbon treaty, which was passed without the democratic consent of the electorate despite a referendum being promised by all political parties.

This article allows the EU Council of Ministers, by qualified majority vote, to provide collective assistance to a member state hit by "natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control...".

However, through a highly elastic and convenient interpretation by the EU elite, the clause is now being used to force countries outside the single currency to bail out those countries that have run into financial trouble.

It is effectively being used by the EU to help itself to billions of pounds of taxpayers' money - even from those countries who have chosen to remain outside the euro - to prop up their fundamentally flawed single currency project.

"Regrettable" billions

Back in November, the House of Lords Treasury spokesman Lord Sassoon described the way Article 122 had been twisted by the EU as "regrettable".

With £8bn on the line, this must surely be a strong contender for the title of understatement of the year!

In reply to a question from Lord Pearson on 22 November, Sassoon said: "It is clearly regrettable that articles of the European Union treaty, such as Article 122, which should have been used for such things as natural disasters, has been enabled to be used for a mechanism in which the UK was committed to be a contributor by the previous Government."

With Portugal, Belgium, Spain and possibly Italy still facing major economic problems, and many now seeing eventual debt default by Greece and Ireland as inevitable, British taxpayers are facing huge potential liabilities.

Government weakness

In a belated bid to shut the stable door and end Britain's financial vulnerability to the euro's flaws, David Cameron in December sought a "political commitment" from EU leaders that Article 122 would no longer be mis-used in this way.

However, the best he could achieve was an exemption for Britain once the new European Stability Mechanism is created via a treaty change - in 2013. Yet there may be plenty of bailouts between now and then!

Should both Portugal and, more seriously, Spain need financial assistance, it is estimated that Britain's liability under Article 122 will be £16 billion and David Cameron has effectively confirmed that his government is completely powerless to limit this.

Criticising his party leader's actions, Douglas Carswell, the Conservative MP for Clacton, said: "This latest failure shows the futility of the government's position. Unless it is willing to challenge the premise of EU membership and the terms on which we signed up, it can never get its way," he said. "The government is utterly impotent."

Referendum needed

The British people never consented to join the euro and yet we find ourselves having to risk billions of pounds to help sustain that dysfunctional system.

This is why we must have a referendum to decide whether or not we want to be bound by Article 122 and all the other provisions of the Lisbon treaty.

The only referendum that makes any sense now is one on whether we want to accept full EU political union or a new relationship based on trade and voluntary ad-hoc co-operation.

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written by Marc Glendening

Will the real Wayne David please step forward

Before moving on from the debate surrounding recent EU budget negotiations, it's worth taking a moment to scrutinise the quite breathtaking hypocrisy exhibited on the subject by Labour's new shadow Europe minister Wayne David MP.

In various reports about David Cameron's (increasingly dubious) efforts to reign in the EU's ever-expanding budget, Mr David offered quotes suggesting that a "sizeable" rise in the EU budget would be "against the national interest", saying: "I think we should dig our heels in and say that we want a freeze in the European Union [budget]."

Really? That's a turn up for the books.

Contradictions

Because not only did Mr David vote in November 2007 in favour of the European Union Finance Bill that approved the last EU budget deal increasing Britain's contributions by an extraordinary 60% through to 2013.

But the former MEP and leader of the Labour group in the European Parliament also in early 2008 voted to approve the Lisbon Treaty (and against the referendum his party promised voters), which is how Brussels is now attempting to justify the EU's need for yet more billions.

In particular, on 20 February 2008, Mr David voted in favour of the Lisbon Treaty's foreign, security and defence policy provisions that authorised the creation of the vastly expensive EU European External Action Service.

This is the new £5.8bn-a-year EU agency headed by the unelected Baroness Catherine Ashton that will be housed in a £10.5 million-a-year building, staffed in Brussels and worldwide by thousands of expensively-salaried EU officials, some of whom will enjoy being ferried about in one of the shiny new bullet-proof limos that will set back Europe's taxpayers £32m.

Regrets?

So for Mr David to turn around now and posture in favour of 'digging in our heels' and freezing Britain's contributions to the EU is all very well, so far as it goes.

But if he wants his apparent conversion to be taken seriously, Mr David first needs to express regret for his poor voting decisions in the past that have ccontributed to the situation Mr Cameron is today having to deal with.

Because if actions speak louder than words, Mr David's very evident past enthusiasm for gifting the EU large amounts of extra cash and voting EU institutions more powers will indicate to most that he's merely playing the sort of low-grade, party-political games that make the public very cynical about politicians and that ultimately only degrade our democracy.

So how about those regrets, Mr David? According to his website, he can be contacted at davidw@parliament.uk. Why not drop him a line and ask him? Especially if you live in his Caerphilly constituency.

Will Cameron yet freeze the EU budget?

David Cameron's strategy to secure a freeze in the EU budget may be becoming clearer.

It was, of course, never in prospect that all the EU's member governments and institutions would agree to a zero percent increase in the EU's spending during 2011.

Nevermind the cut in funding that is truly justified by the drastic austerity measures being implemented in the EU's member countries and the EU's perpetual failure to safeguard from waste and fraud the public money it is given.

Nevertheless, has Mr Cameron gambled that protracted disagreement over the level of increase may deliver exactly what he wants?

Institutional stand-off

By securing the backing of ten other EU member countries for the position that the rise must not exceed 2.9%, David Cameron has set up a stand-off between the European Council on the one hand and the European 'Parliament' and Commission on the other.

The procedure for agreeing the EU's annual budget is set out in Article 314 of the EU treaty, as usefully highlighted over on the Your Freedom and Ours blog. Skip to paragraph 5 to find the current state of play.

During the forthcoming potential 21 days of 'conciliation', the likely response from the 'Parliament' and Commission to what has occured over the last two will be to propose a figure somewhere between the 5.9% increase they currently want and the 2.9% backed by a blocking minority on the Council.

If no agreement is reached during conciliation, paragraph 8 confirms that the procedure goes right back to the start, with the Commission required to submit a new draft budget.

Freezing stalemate

That there may be no agreement during conciliation seems a real possibility. The EU 'Parliament' in particular is easily pompous enough about its position and role to believe its duty is to 'take on' national governments. And need we really say more about Commission president Jose 'dimension of empire' Barroso?

By demanding billions extra from cash-strapped European countries that will no doubt have to be additionally borrowed before being handed over, these two EU institutions have at least usefully demonstrated the emptiness of their rhetoric about seeking to help Europe recover economically.

The bigger question during conciliation is whether Mr Cameron's group of supportive countries on the European Council will stand firm.

Should this roundabout of negotiations not be resolved in time for the new budget to start in 2011, Article 315 of the treaty confirms that "not more than one twelfth of the budget appropriations for the preceding financial year may be spent each month ..."

In other words - in the absence of a specific concession by the Council that more than one twelfth per month may be spent, which would be unlikely given they will be attempting to pressure the 'Parliament' and Commission into swift acquiescence to their 2.9% deal - the 2010 EU budget continues into next year.

Bingo! That freeze.

Futile games

So is David Cameron gaming the 'Parliament' and Commission with their own procedures in order to achieve what he wants? Time, and the reaction of those institutions, will tell. Ultimately, it matters little.

For all the reasons and more that were well argued by Harry Phibbs in the Daily Mail, even a freeze isn't nearly strong enough action against the EU's financial incompetence and abject waste and the best case scenario of all this is still most likely to be a 2.9% increase.

That would leave Britain still having to stump up an extra £430 million for the EU next year, on top of the £8.3bn (net) we're already committed to handing over, while making big cuts to essential public services at home.

Justify that, Prime Minister.

EU taxation without representation coming your way?

by Marc Glendening

The European Commission last week revealed that it is pressing ahead with its plans to gain more powers of direct taxation over the citizens of EU member states.

On October 19th it announced (pdf) its desire to be able to levy taxes relating to greenhouse emissions, financial transactions, air transportation, energy or company profits.

The EU desperately needs more cash to help sustain new agencies that will exercise its extended range of powers introduced by the Lisbon treaty.

In addition, the crisis being experienced by the Eurozone countries means Brussels needs to build a much larger treasury so that significant transfers of money can be made to countries such as Greece that fall into difficulty.

We opponents of the idea of a single European currency have always warned that monetary union would necessitate fiscal union. As usual, we were accused of hysterical scaremongering and inventing threats that did not exist by the likes of Peter Mandelson, Chris Huhne and Ken Clarke.

This initial drive for new tax-raising powers follows Herman Van Rompuy's speech on the eve of his non-contested appointment in November 2009 as the organisation's new permanent president, when he declared that one of his main objectives was to enable the Brussels elite to by-pass national governments and come directly to us as individuals for cash.

He said that a good way to get the ball rolling, no doubt because of its potentially populist appeal, would be with a 'green fiscal instrument' though in time other types of tax would come into play.

Van Rompuy's speech was music to the ears of EU-centralists such as Andrew Duff, the Liberal Democrat MEP and president of the Union of European Federalists.

In response to the president's speech he said: “He is a federalist and federalists believe in that approach. We have got to have a reform of the financial system. We have also got to grow the size of the EU budget to reflect the growth of competences that are in the Lisbon treaty, such as foreign and security policy, a common energy policy and climate change measures.”

The EU is frustrated by having to go cap in hand to the governments of those nations that are net donors to its budget, who help sustain the whole edifice.

The realisation among the Brussels elite is that it is going to be very difficult politically in the years ahead to persuade the German, British and Dutch governments - the principal contributors to the budget - to keep squeezing their taxpayers.

Everything would be so much easier for the EU if the Commission, which doesn't face public election, could levy its own taxes without fear for the electoral consequences.

The EU is facing an existential moment: It needs to step up a gear and move towards full fiscal union if the euro is to be saved. The stakes are now very high, both for the EU-centralisers and those of us who seek a Europe of democracies. If the former get the powers and financial resources they seek, the unified, centrally run state they seek will become a reality.

However, achieving these prizes involves the EU elite having to run the massive risk of coming out of the political shadows and making its impirial ambitions more and more apparent to the peoples of Europe.

Until now the very obscurity and tedium-inducing complexity of this parallel system of power has enabled the political classes of the member states to keep transferring new powers to it, away from their own parliamentary systems.

The granting of direct tax-raising powers may prove to be the EU's own Boston Tea Party moment. If the peoples of Europe rally to block such an extraordinary transfer of power and funds it is difficult to envisage how the EU can survive in the long term.

As the old saying goes: 'Be careful for what you wish'.

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written by Marc Glendening

Why isn't the EU budget being cut?

by Marc Glendening

On Wednesday October 13th, 35 MPs defied the coalition government and demanded that Britain's contribution to the EU be cut in real terms at a time when major spending reductions are being planned across the range of public services in Britain.

Ministers said that it would be 'illegal' for our parliament to vote for a cut in the contribution and are instead pressing for a freeze in the amount of money we hand over to a fraud-ridden budget that has not had its books given a clean bill of health by auditors in 15 years.

The European Commission wants its budget to grow by 5.8% next year,
2011-12. Britain is already paying £8.3 billion net, compared to last year's
£6.4 billion above and beyond what we get back currently. In total the gross contribution we have to hand over amounts to £48 million a day.

This year, the Commission has reluctantly settled for a 2.9% rise. The plan is to increase the wages of EU officials by 5.3% and expand the commission's administration costs by an extra 15%.

As Mats Persson of the pressure group Open Europe comments: "People and governments across Europe are fed up with the EU being the only public body protected from spending cuts".

The Council of Ministers wants the Commission to cut its increase for next year back to 2.6%. However, the European Parliament wants to go even further than the Commission and voted on October 20 for a £6.5 billion increase.

For Britain this will mean, if implemented, finding an extra £884 million next year, this being the equivalent of 14,000 doctors, 29,000 nurses, 34,000 police officers or 52,000 soldiers.

The elaborate Brussels 'conciliation procedure' will now kick in to try and arrive at some sort of compromise between the various bodies wanting more money from UK and other European taxpayers.

On top of this, unelected EU tax commissioner Janusz Lewandowski wants to remove Britain's rebate from the EU budget. This is currently worth
£3 billion. It was negotiated by the UK government in the 1980s because British farmers received a much smaller proportion of CAP money compared to their German and French counterparts. Now the Commission wants to reduce our rebate by £2.5 billion next year before phasing it out totally.

Another area of financial attack emanating from Brussels is the way in which we are being forced to contribute to the crisis in the eurozone. The UK was obliged to guarantee £8.6 billion towards the recent bail-out of Greece, about 10% of the total loan package. If the Greeks cannot pay this back, then UK taxpayers will lose their money.

We had to contribute this amount because the Commission utilised article 122 of the Lisbon treaty that allows the Council of Ministers, by qualified majority vote, to impose collective assistance to a member state hit by 'natural disasters or exceptional occurrences beyond its control...'.

This article is therefore, through a highly elastic and convenient interpretation by the EU elite, being used to justify forcing countries outside the eurozone to help prop up those within it that run into trouble. As Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said: "We will defend the euro, whatever it takes".

To cap it all, recently Britain was fined £150 million by the Commission for not flying the EU flag in the vicinity of a number of projects Brussels claims to have 'financed'!

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written by Marc Glendening