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King for a Day
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| Presented by J H Snyder, M.Div. | ||
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Courtesy WWW.JVIM.COM |
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 The London Telegraph: "A radical blueprint of a more powerful European Union, in which Britain would lose its veto over tax policy and be bound by a joint constitution, is to be published next week by Romano Prodi, the new President of the European Commission. The document, co-written by Lord Simon of Highbury, a Government adviser and former trade minister, will be seized on by critics as evidence of plans to create a European superstate...It will embarrass Tony Blair and undermine his attempt to emphasize the benefits of EU membership at today's long-awaited launch of Britain in Europe, the pro-euro campaign group. He is determined to expose what he sees as anti-European myths, including the fears of a superstate… The report, commissioned by Mr Prodi following his recent appointment, proposes wholesale extension of the EC's powers and far greater integration between member states. It recommends that qualified majority voting should be ‘the rule’ rather than the exception in an enlarged EU. This would almost certainly mean that Britain and other member states would lose their veto over issues such as indirect taxation. Another proposal is for the treaties which govern European business to be torn up and replaced by two documents designed to make it easier to introduce changes. One, setting out the ‘principles, aims and institutional framework’ of the EU would be widely interpreted as a de facto constitution for Europe. The other would cover policies agreed by members and could be amended in isolation without interfering with the constitutional aspects. The report also calls for closer links on foreign and defense policy to be formalized..." |
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| EU EXPANSION MOVING FORWARD AND COMPARED TO ROMAN EMPIRE October 14, 1999 | ||
| Associated Press reported: "European Commission President Romano Prodi recommended today that negotiations begin next year with six countries seeking future European Union membership, possibly as early as 2003. Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Slovakia have fulfilled the criteria necessary to begin talks to join the EU, Prodi told the European Parliament in Brussels. Bulgaria and Romania, however, must meet certain further conditions, he said. Talks are already underway with six other nations: Cyprus, Estonia, Slovenia, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. The six countries recommended today had been relegated to a group on a slower path to membership. Prodi said the negotiations should follow a ‘differentiated’ approach, taking account of each candidate's progress. ‘Rarely in the course of history does an opportunity like this present itself,’ Prodi told parliament. ‘For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire we have the opportunity to unite Europe. This time it will not be by force of arms but on the basis of shared ideals and agreed common rules.’..." | ||
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| LEADER OF EU TO RECEIVE EXPANDED POWERS October 18, 1999 The London Telegraph reported today: “THE powers of Romano Prodi, the European Commission President, should be increased greatly to allow an enlarged European Union to function effectively, says a report to be published in Brussels today. Co-written by Lord Simon of Highbury, an adviser to the Government, it will mark the opening move by integrationists in the debate on how to prepare the EU for a membership of 20 to 30 states. According to senior EU officials, the report proposes rapid and far-reaching changes to the EU rule book next year. Many of these would tilt the balance of power swiftly and dramatically towards the European Commission President and his Brussels bureaucracy, and away from sovereign member states. One idea is understood to be a recommendation that the Commission president be given enhanced powers to run an expanded team of commissioners as if it were his own European government. Under the new blueprint each country, however small, would almost certainly retain one commissioner in the larger EU. But the president would be elevated above his expanding team and would be able to create senior and junior posts and to dismiss any commissioner..." | ||
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| EU ON THE FAST TRACK TO SUPERSTATE STATUS part 1 of 3 October 17, 1999 | ||
| The London Telegraph reported today: "Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, will this week overrule British objections to the federalist blueprint being drawn up for an enlarged European government to cover an estimated 500 million people. Mr Prodi will receive a 15-page federalist blueprint tomorrow morning from a three-strong 'wise men' committee, which includes the former government minister Lord Simon of Highbury. Mr Prodi asked for the report six weeks ago and appointed the committee members himself. If the new recommendations are incorporated into EU law, Britain stands to lose the power of veto in leading policy areas, including taxation. Britain will also be forced to give up one of its two commissioners and a significant number of MEPs, with Brussels institutions "streamlined" into a form closer to a national government and parliament...The radical changes will be debated by member states at an intergovernmental conference in Helsinki in December. A ‘Big Bang’ conference is made necessary, according to Mr Prodi, by the EU's expansion to the east. Last week, in one of the most ambitious speeches ever made by a Commission president, Mr Prodi told the European Parliament that eastward expansion was a ‘historic challenge’ to create ‘a new European soul’...There could be as many as 30 EU members within a decade, Mr Prodi said, creating a Union which would require a new and unprecedented centralisation of power in Brussels. Even Turkey was named by Mr Prodi as a possible future member, despite longstanding concerns over its human rights record..." CONTINUED | ||
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| EU ON THE FAST TRACK TO SUPERSTATE STATUS part 2 of 3 October 17, 1999 | ||
| "...The committee report which Mr Prodi will now present to governments argues that the powers of large member states should be drastically curbed to cope with the ‘new Europe’. The chief author, the federalist former Belgian prime minister Jean Luc Dehaene, has already stated that ‘root and branch’ reform of the existing EU treaty is required, shifting power away from member states and towards Mr Prodi's commission. The document will recommend that the national veto be scrapped in all but a few constitutional areas such as the admission of new members…The influence of large western member states such as Britain would also be undermined by plans to allow the bigger countries only one seat at a drastically reduced commission, which could have as few as six members, resembling the board of the European Central Bank. Countries such as Luxembourg and Ireland would lose their representation altogether..." CONTINUED | ||
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| EU ON THE FAST TRACK TO SUPERSTATE STATUS part 3 of 3 October 17, 1999 | ||
| In a further attempt to prise control from national governments, Mr Prodi will call for sweeping new legislative powers for the European Parliament, hoping to restore its credibility after disastrous elections in June, when 70 per cent of eligible voters stayed at home. The numbers of MEPs sent to Strasbourg by existing member states would be cut, to allow space for the new intake from the east…Sources inside the commission admit that no one expected Mr Prodi to push the federalist case so aggressively. Mr Prodi has also laid the ground for a presidential-style government..." | ||
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| LEADER OF EU TO RECEIVE EXPANDED POWERS October 18, 1999 The London Telegraph reported today: “THE powers of Romano Prodi, the European Commission President, should be increased greatly to allow an enlarged European Union to function effectively, says a report to be published in Brussels today. Co-written by Lord Simon of Highbury, an adviser to the Government, it will mark the opening move by integrationists in the debate on how to prepare the EU for a membership of 20 to 30 states. According to senior EU officials, the report proposes rapid and far-reaching changes to the EU rule book next year. Many of these would tilt the balance of power swiftly and dramatically towards the European Commission President and his Brussels bureaucracy, and away from sovereign member states. One idea is understood to be a recommendation that the Commission president be given enhanced powers to run an expanded team of commissioners as if it were his own European government. Under the new blueprint each country, however small, would almost certainly retain one commissioner in the larger EU. But the president would be elevated above his expanding team and would be able to create senior and junior posts and to dismiss any commissioner..." | ||
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| BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TO RELINQUISH MORE POWER TO EU October 19, 1999 The London Telegraph reported: "Tony Blair signaled his readiness yesterday to give up Britain's national veto over more EU decision-making to pave the way for the next stage of integration. Downing Street said that the Government was prepared to extend the use of majority voting; otherwise any single country could stop ‘any change at any time’. The Tories condemned such a move as a ‘blueprint for a European superstate’. Although the Government stressed that it would not abandon its veto on tax and national defense, it indicated that it was ready to take part in a debate on how to streamline the EU to include up to 13 new member states. A 15-page ‘wise men’s’ report, published in Brussels, made clear that more majority voting would be vital in future to avoid decision-making paralysis. It proposed stripping away the veto that member states have over EU security, foreign policy, justice and home affairs, and reshaping the Brussels bureaucracy into something more like a European government..." | ||
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