Blair to meet Giscard d’Estaing
Tony Blair is to meet Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the chairman of the convention that will deliver a new European constitution ahead of enlargement.
The new constitution arises from concerns that enlargement will make existing treaties and institutions unworkable, and is designed to refine European governance and establish clear lines on where responsibility for different policy areas lies.
Today’s meeting will take place at 10 Downing Street, and the pair are expected to discuss the provisions of the constitutions, and most importantly, those areas on which the Government is unwilling to compromise sovereignty.
However, while most people accept the case for a referendum on the Euro, controversy has arisen over whether the government should hold a referendum on the new constitution.
The Conservative party believes it has hit a popular note with calls for a public vote on the new European rules, and claims that the treaty will remove British sovereignty. There has also been similar calls from Labour backbencher Frank Fields, who called the convention ‘establishment of a single European state’.
But while this may seem popular, polls suggest that the public have taken little interest in the subject, with one recently suggesting a large majority knew little about the convention or the treaty.
Several senior figures have also poured cold water on the idea of such a referendum. Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who is the UK’s representative on the convention, has accused those campaigning for a referendum of spreading lies.
He has told those campaigning for a referendum that there is no precedent for such a referendum and that they will not get one, though one backer of the campaigns, Lord Saatchi claimed that the constitution would create a ‘single European country’.
