Euroskeptics In Britain Heartened By Results Of New Survey
TruthNews,Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty ^ | Dec. 9, 2004 | Jan Jun

So-called Euroskeptics in the United Kingdom have lost faith in the process of European integration and resent what they see as rule from Brussels. They believe the British Parliament has been relegated to simply endorsing laws made outside the country. They trust neither the new European Constitution nor the European Commission. What's more, the results of a recent survey seem to confirm that most Britons feel the same way.

According to a survey by Britain's ICM polling institute, conducted for the European Foundation, 58 percent of Britons would like to see European Union treaties renegotiated, reducing them to simply trade and association agreements. The sentiment is even higher -- 68 percent -- among those aged 18-24 years.

Malcolm Pearson is an independent Conservative member of the House of Lords. Pearson says he has opposed the European project since he read the text of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, the pact that created the European Economic Community. He calls it a "terrifying and very misguided project."

He says the worst thing is the loss of sovereignty suffered by the British Parliament: "All of our industry and commerce, all of our social and labor policy, all of our environment, agriculture, fish, and foreign aid, are already decided in Brussels, completely bypassing the national parliaments. The national parliaments are a rubber stamp for all those areas. And, furthermore, if the governments agree unanimously a new law in Brussels, in common foreign and security policy, and in justice and home affairs, Parliament again has to rubber-stamp it."

Pearson believes the recent wrangling over the makeup of the new European Commission exposed the EU's corruptibility:

"The project continues to go in the wrong direction. You have a new [European] Commission with six former communists [and] two former fraudsters. A lady from Latvia [Ingrida Udre] who's in favor of national countries retaining their tax systems being blackballed from the new commission. A decent Roman Catholic [Rocco Buttiglione] blackballed from the new commission. I see absolutely no prospect of the new commission taking the project in the right direction."

Pearson is referring to the new EU commissioner for transport and tourism, Jacques Barrot of France, who was convicted for embezzling party funds, but it was erased from his record by a presidential amnesty. Estonian Commissioner Siim Kallas pleaded not guilty to charges that he was responsible for the disappearance of $10 million from the Bank of Estonia when he was chairman. He was acquitted.

Pearson says political elites in the new member countries have "betrayed their own people's sovereignty," attracted by the enormous salaries in Brussels.

As for Britain, Pearson says the ICM survey clearly shows what needs to be done: "There isn't a European Union that we could accept for the United Kingdom. What we could do is renegotiate our relationship with the single market, down to a free-trade arrangement. Which is what we all thought we were voting for in [the referendum of] 1975 anyway."

In 1975, British voters overwhelming supported the country's continued membership in the European Economic Community.

The UKIP's Williamson agrees that no renegotiation is possible -- other than down to a free-trade agreement -- because the other member countries would oppose it. But an opportunity exists, he feels, if voters say "no" in the planned referendum on the new European Constitution: "Britain is the fourth-largest economy in the world, and the continent makes a profit on their trade with us. So they're not likely to erect trade barriers against us in the event of us withdrawing from the EU. And we can still trade with them."

Pearson says the referendums planned across Europe on the new constitution should reveal the extent of Euroskepticism across the continent.