The European Constitution is the big issue that we have to face during the coming year but the Government continues to argue that there is nothing constitutionally new, so there need not be a referendum.  This just won’t wash.

The fact is the draft Constitution does contain real constitutional changes.  The national veto will be removed in 36 policy areas and, with the “escalator clause”, any or all of the remaining unanimity areas such as on taxation (the reason for Gordon Brown getting his knickers in a twist) can be switched to majority voting without amending the Constitution.  Instead the European Council is given powers to agree to such changes by unanimity, thereby cutting out national parliaments and electorates.

The draft Constitution also renovates the EU’s institutions in several other ways. It creates a new president of the European Council and an EU foreign minister.  It even creates, for the first time, a mechanism by which a country could leave the EU!  It provides for a new distribution of powers between the EU and member states so that in 10 areas member states will only be able to act if the EU decides not to.  Many of the changes are good and necessary.  The basic institutional structure of the EU was designed for the original six members and has been under pressure with 15 members.  Now with enlargement to 25 members it is clearly necessary to make changes.  But to argue that the changes proposed are not constitutionally significant is disingenuous and smacks of a fear to engage with the public.

Most of Europe’s leading politicians see the process of agreeing a new Constitution as a serious matter. German Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, said “This is the most important treaty since the formation of the European Economic Community.” The Italian Foreign Minister called it “a historic step in the integration process” and French Foreign Minister, Dominique de Villepin, said that the Constitution creates “a new political age”.

We need an opportunity to have a serious debate on Europe but people will not be engaged unless they have some real decision–making power.  European parliamentary elections have failed to provide the necessary opportunity as they mostly focus on national issues.  A referendum would both allow us to debate the European Union seriously and provide the democratic legitimacy that the Constitution needs.

A referendum campaign would enliven the debate over the EU, forcing the media to concentrate on the real issues: What tasks are best left to member states? What is the right level of harmonisation to promote efficiency of markets, combat discrimination and actually increase our influence in the world, not erode our sovereignty as some claim is the hidden agenda?  We could make the case for the enhanced trade union rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We could discuss proposals for greater accountability of the decision-making process – how they don’t perhaps go far enough.  Who knows, this might even take us into a rational discussion about what federalism really means!

The absence of serious public participation means we are stuck with a caricatured debate lead by those who oppose our membership of the EU in principle. This will continue unless people have a real sense of ownership of - and involvement in - the EU. That is why we need a referendum on the Constitution.

A referendum would be entirely in keeping with the spirit of the Constitution. The Laeken declaration that set the constitutional process in motion stated “within the Union, the European institutions must be brought closer to its citizens.” Yet the drafting process in which people were supposed to participate did not capture the public imagination. We need to do more to involve the people to make the Constitution a success.

Of course, many people do not want a referendum on the Constitution because they fear that the Government would lose it.  That is a fundamentally undemocratic argument. You could equally argue that we should not hold any more general elections because we fear that we might lose them.  Many polls, such as the EU’s own Eurobarometer, which showed that 52 per cent support having a European Constitution, suggest that a ‘Yes’ campaign could well succeed.  The pro-European argument is a strong one, and those of us who believe in it should have the confidence to take it directly to the people.

The simple fact is that the European Constitution will make real constitutional changes that have not appeared in any party’s manifesto. If the Constitution is to be successful then there must be a referendum on it.  Otherwise it will create even more public hostility towards the EU and scupper any possible chance of a “Yes” vote on joining the Euro. The European integration project must take the peoples of Europe with it or it will fail. The effects of that failure would be catastrophic.

November 2003.

For background on my views...

..on Europe, please click here for an article I wrote for Red Pepper in 1995.