Where now, after Lisbon?1

Mark Wallace European Union

Now that the Lisbon Treaty has been ratified by all the EU's member states it has become law. What should be the next steps for Britain and the EU? The TPA's EU Policy Analyst Dr Lee Rotherham has written a step by step guide to what the next Prime Minister of Britain should be demanding, and how to go about it.

The proposals could and should be adopted by any party that finds itself in Government after the next election. As Labour and the Lib Dems are open supporters of the Lisbon Treaty, though, and as Tory policy has yet to be set on the matter, the report is titled "Hague's Handbag". Enjoy!

Mark Wallace

Mark is a writer and political campaigner, ardent libertarian and eurosceptic.

Follow @wallaceme

oh-deary-me

To quote the author:
“In other words, there is no reason why the UK has to have full membership terms or none at
all. Nor is there any obligation to assume the form of arrangement criticised as the “fax
democracy” such as Norway has assumed.”
So, how would it work, then? There is no way that the UK can have ‘associate membership’ (and thus being subject to all the regulations of the single market) while still maintaining a presence in the decision-making process. So we’d have the same rules, but no MEPs, no commissioners, and no say in future treaties. Doesn’t sound like a very good deal to me!
Unless the author is proposing we have a ‘symmetric free trade agreement’, whatever that means. Is the author implying that Switzerland doesn’t have to follow EU law or pay into its budget? If so, I have news for him: it does!
This notion of sovereignty is so painfully false. All this would give us is the image of sovereignty, when the reality would be following EU law without any say whatsoever in its formation. Which is great for nostalgic loonies who would rather pretend they live in a different world, but not for those of us in touch with reality.