European Union

It’s Gender Equality Week at the European Parliament. Also on the agenda are cybersecurity, misuse of EU funds and the digital sector.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

It’s Gender Equality Week at the European Parliament. Also on the agenda are cybersecurity, misuse of EU funds and the digital sector.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Former Conservative MEP, Daniel Hannan, has penned an article for The Telegraph with the headline: ‘Poland is learning, as Britain did, that the  EU will never let its members be sovereign’

What nonsense. The EU is not a foreign power lording over the members. The EU IS the members.

All EU laws and treaties are democratically decided. The EU Commission is not the master of the EU; it’s the servant of the EU, fulfilling the laws agreed by the members.

Daniel Hannan is more recently known as Baron Hannan of Kingsclere, after he was appointed last year to the House of Lords by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

He is also an advisor to the Board of Trade. Elected to the position? Don’t be silly. He’s an unelected bureaucrat.

He was one of the founder members of Vote Leave and described by The Guardian as

“the man who brought you Brexit”

In his Telegraph column, Mr, sorry Lord Hannan, claims that:

‘It was always about sovereignty. Who gives orders and who takes them. In Lenin’s pithy formulation, “who, whom?”’

And he makes clear that he supports Poland ‘calmly and politely’ repudiating EU sovereignty. He writes:

‘Its highest court, the Constitutional Tribunal, determined that, on Polish territory, national law had precedence over rulings by EU institutions.’

He explains:

‘What makes the EU’s treaties different from every other international accord is that they do not just apply to their signatories as states; rather, they create a new legal order that is directly binding on citizens with or without implementing legislation at national level.

‘If there is a conflict, decisions by EU institutions override national statutes and even national constitutions. The EU is, in the exact sense, sovereign over its member countries.’

Why did EU member states agree ‘to this surrender’ asks Lord Hannan.

He claims they didn’t, at least not until recently. The problem has come about because the final arbiter of EU law is the European Court of Justice.

Lord Hannan asserts:

‘The primacy of EU law is not to be found anywhere in the Treaty of Rome.’

But in the same article, Lord Hannan reminds readers that in 1999, in a declaration attached to the Lisbon Treaty, EU member governments acknowledged the supremacy of EU law “in accordance with well settled case law of the ECJ”.

So, supremacy of EU law (in certain areas*) was agreed by EU members. The Lisbon Treaty had the unanimous endorsement of every EU member state. It was not forced on any country.

Furthermore, Lord Hannan’s opinion piece refers to Articles 2 and 3 of the European Communities Bill 1972.

Those Articles, acknowledges Lord Hannan, ‘declared EU rules to be supreme over parliamentary statutes.’

The UK House of Commons voted 301–284 in favour of the Bill, and it was endorsed by the UK House of Lords.

So, any devolvement of sovereignty to the EU by the UK was democratically agreed by our Parliament as part of our membership terms.

As the Institute of Government has pointed out:

‘The European Communities Act [1972] gives EU law supremacy over UK national law.

‘Where the interpretation of EU law is in doubt, the Act requires UK courts to refer judgment to the European Court of Justice.’

So, supremacy of EU law over certain areas* of a member state’s laws is voluntary, democratic, and can come to an end when a member state leaves the EU – as all members are free to do, and the UK has now done.

It should be remembered that every EEC/EU treaty – upon which all EU laws must be compatible – was fully debated and democratically passed by our Parliament in Westminster.

Not once were changes to our membership imposed on us, and neither could they be, as the EU is a democracy, run by its members for the benefit of members.

Brexiters such as Lord Hannan claim that outside the EU the UK has gained sovereignty.

But with Brexit, we’ve lost a say, votes and vetoes on the running and future direction of our continent.

That in my mind does not represent a gain, but a loss of sovereignty.

* Legal note: EU does not have supremacy over every national law; ONLY areas for which the EU is responsible. See Full Fact’s excellent report about this. 

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On Saturday 23 October, the second Conference Plenary meeting took place in the European Parliament in Strasbourg to discuss citizens’ contributions.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

On Saturday 23 October, the second Conference Plenary meeting took place in the European Parliament in Strasbourg to discuss citizens’ contributions.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EP committees and delegations will hold a series of discussions and public hearings on topics related to gender equality.
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

EP committees and delegations will hold a series of discussions and public hearings on topics related to gender equality.
Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Committee meetings, Brussels

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

MEPs said the primacy of EU law must be upheld in Poland, welcomed the EU's new farm to fork strategy and awarded Alexei Navalny the 2021 Sakharov Prize.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

MEPs said the primacy of EU law must be upheld in Poland, welcomed the EU's new farm to fork strategy and awarded Alexei Navalny the 2021 Sakharov Prize.

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

MEPs agreed to close the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency’s accounts for 2019, but asked for part of next year’s budget to be frozen.
Committee on Budgetary Control

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MEPs agreed to close the EU Border and Coast Guard Agency’s accounts for 2019, but asked for part of next year’s budget to be frozen.
Committee on Budgetary Control

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State institutions in Tunisia must return to functioning normally, MEPs say, urging the authorities to resume an inclusive national dialogue.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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State institutions in Tunisia must return to functioning normally, MEPs say, urging the authorities to resume an inclusive national dialogue.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

State institutions in Tunisia must return to functioning normally, MEPs say, urging the authorities to resume an inclusive national dialogue.
Committee on Foreign Affairs

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Parliament condemns an attempt to undermine the primacy of EU law and calls on the Council and Commission to urgently protect the people of Poland and the Union.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP

Parliament condemns an attempt to undermine the primacy of EU law and calls on the Council and Commission to urgently protect the people of Poland and the Union.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

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Parliament on Thursday called for thorough investigations to be launched into any wrongdoing exposed by the Pandora Papers that took place in EU jurisdictions.
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Subcommittee on Tax Matters

Source : © European Union, 2021 - EP