Danes set to rule out referendum

The Danes are set to become the latest country to rule out a referendum on the Reform Treaty, with the Danish ministry of justice publishing a report which concludes that a plebiscite is unnecessary because the treaty does not transfer new powers to the EU. This recommendation follows a legal review of the treaty.

Indeed, the report, which is influential but not binding on the Danish government, states that "it is the opinion of the justice ministry that for Denmark the Lisbon Treaty does not transfer new powers of the country's authorities to the Union", adding that "Danish ratification of the Lisbon Treaty does not raise additional questions in relation to the constitution". The final decision on whether to hold a referendum will be announced by the Danish government next week.

This is highly significant in that the Danish constitution states that any international treaty that transfers sovereignty from the national government must be agreed by a referendum before it can be ratified. The recommendations of the Danish justice ministry, which echo the views of the Dutch Council of State and the Czech government, expose the sheer inaccuracy of claims by Cameron's Tories and our Eurosceptic newspapers that the treaty represents a massive transfer of sovereignty to Brussels.

It is looking increasingly likely that Ireland, which is constitutionally required to hold referenda on any changes to the EU treaties, will be the only Member State to hold a referendum.

With customary hypocrisy, the Eurosceptic press today criticised the EU for cutting subsidies that could lead to an increase to the cost of Christmas trees. Apparently, imports of the Danish grown Nordmann fir, which has been the most popular tree in British households since the early 1990s because it retains its needles for longer than other trees, are to drop because a ruling by the European Union to scrap subsidies under the Common Agricultural Policy.

About 300,000 Nordmann firs will now be sent to Britain this December compared with the 1.2 million last year.

An interesting story - I hadn't realised that the Telegraph and the Express were in favour of the CAP subsidy! The ingenuity of newspaper editors to shape a story to give the EU a clout never ceases to amaze, but "EU ruins Christmas" is a new one in my book.

Last Wednesday I was invited by the Danish Parliament to Copenhagen to give advice to their European Affairs Committee.

The Danish Folketing's EU Committee is one of the oldest and most respected of national Parliamentary committees set up to scrutinise EU business. In my view, they are in many ways a model: Danish ministers have to appear before the Committee before they go to Brussels and outline the positions they intend to take, receiving a sort of negotiating brief from the Committee. They also have to account for their actions afterwards.

This close scrutiny and dialogue with the ministers goes beyond the largely documentary based scrutiny that some other national Parliaments use for their EU work. Not that the Danish Parliament shirks from its share of paperwork: all EU documents are sent to it for examination.

The Committee also has regular public hearings with experts and others. My own session lasted a whole morning and I was interested to see that, once the MPs had finished asking their questions, members of the public present in the gallery are invited to pose questions as well - a practice that would be inconceivable in our own dear Westminster!

Good to see the new chair of the Dutch Labour Party is my former MEP colleague Michiel Van Hulten. The new leader of the Danish Social Democrats is similarly a former colleague, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. Both were in the Campaign for Parliamentary Reform, which worked with me on the “Corbett Report” (link to PDF) which reformed the European Parliament’s internal Rules of Procedure three years ago. Their support was important in helping shape a package capable of getting the necessary majority.

They join a long list of Socialist parties now led by former MEPs: Francois Hollande of the French Parti Socialiste, Elio di Rupo of the Belgian Parti Socialiste, Piero Frassoni of the Italian Democratic Left, Robert Fico of the Slovakian Social Democracy and Borut Pahor of the Slovenian Social Democrats (who is still serving as an MEP!). I wonder when Britain will follow this trend?