Treasures from the threads Number 67 - Eu Treaties
To a post on John Redwood's Diary blog, linked here.
Denis Cooper
Denis Cooper
As a point of passing interest, tomorrow will be a very special day for the EU Parliament because the first post-Lisbon EU treaty change will come into force and so it will once again be lawfully constituted.
That’s after a period of two years since December 1st 2009, during which its composition has been in clear breach of the EU treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon, as explained here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20100223BKG69359/html/Ratification-of-Parliament%27s-18-additional-MEPs-completed
The root cause of the unlawfulness being the refusal of the German government to withdraw three surplus German MEPs, 99 having been elected in June 2009 when the Treaty of Lisbon set a new maximum of 96 MEPs for any country.
I think it’s worth mentioning this, because hardly anybody in this country was aware of this legal problem with the EU Parliament, which could have and arguably should have rendered all its acts null and void, and hardly anybody in this country noticed when a treaty protocol to correct the problem was agreed by representatives of the EU member states in Brussels on June 23rd 2010, and hardly anybody in this country registered that Parliament was being asked to approve that first post-Lisbon EU treaty change through the entirely unrelated European Union Bill, the “referendum lock” law:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/12/part/2/enacted
“Part 2
Implementation of transitional Protocol on MEPs
15 Protocol on MEPs: approval, and addition to list of treaties
(1) The Protocol amending the Protocol (No. 36) on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, signed at Brussels on 23 June 2010, is approved for the purposes of section 5 of the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 (amendment of founding Treaties: approval by Act of Parliament).”
Likewise it seems that hardly anybody in this country has yet noticed that the SECOND post-Lisbon EU treaty change was agreed by EU leaders on March 25th 2011:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:091:0001:0002:EN:PDF
and that Cameron asked for and got nothing substantive in return for his agreement.
So my answer to the question “What should the UK say to Germany?” is that first of all Cameron should say that he no longer intends to ask Parliament to approve that EU treaty change agreed on March 25th, until there have been further negotiations and a number of important conditions have been met.
That’s after a period of two years since December 1st 2009, during which its composition has been in clear breach of the EU treaties as amended by the Treaty of Lisbon, as explained here:
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20100223BKG69359/html/Ratification-of-Parliament%27s-18-additional-MEPs-completed
The root cause of the unlawfulness being the refusal of the German government to withdraw three surplus German MEPs, 99 having been elected in June 2009 when the Treaty of Lisbon set a new maximum of 96 MEPs for any country.
I think it’s worth mentioning this, because hardly anybody in this country was aware of this legal problem with the EU Parliament, which could have and arguably should have rendered all its acts null and void, and hardly anybody in this country noticed when a treaty protocol to correct the problem was agreed by representatives of the EU member states in Brussels on June 23rd 2010, and hardly anybody in this country registered that Parliament was being asked to approve that first post-Lisbon EU treaty change through the entirely unrelated European Union Bill, the “referendum lock” law:
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2011/12/part/2/enacted
“Part 2
Implementation of transitional Protocol on MEPs
15 Protocol on MEPs: approval, and addition to list of treaties
(1) The Protocol amending the Protocol (No. 36) on transitional provisions annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community, signed at Brussels on 23 June 2010, is approved for the purposes of section 5 of the European Union (Amendment) Act 2008 (amendment of founding Treaties: approval by Act of Parliament).”
Likewise it seems that hardly anybody in this country has yet noticed that the SECOND post-Lisbon EU treaty change was agreed by EU leaders on March 25th 2011:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:091:0001:0002:EN:PDF
and that Cameron asked for and got nothing substantive in return for his agreement.
So my answer to the question “What should the UK say to Germany?” is that first of all Cameron should say that he no longer intends to ask Parliament to approve that EU treaty change agreed on March 25th, until there have been further negotiations and a number of important conditions have been met.
Labels: Treasures
posted by Martin at 6:24 PM
