letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP

29 October 2004

The Times

Sir,

In a sidebar alongside a well- informed article on EU affairs (29 October,  p.10), the accuracy of your reporting self-destructs rather abruptly. You present a list of ten changes suggested in the proposed EU constitution – but unfortunately, two of the items are factually inaccurate, and two more are very misleading.

The constitution certainly will not “create a permanent EU president”. There has never been such a thing, nor is it envisaged. The constitution would simply replace the current 6-month rotating chairmanship of one of the institutions (the European Council) with a 2½-year chair whose job would be to arrange Council meetings and preside at them. This role is purely administrative, with no decision-making powers at all.

The constitution will not “set up an EU common defence policy”, though it allows for member governments to develop one, in time, if they unanimously want to do so.

It's also misleading to describe the Charter of Fundamental Rights as “new” without pointing out that EU countries agreed to it four years ago. The Charter is reproduced in the constitution only to ensure that EU institutions respect the same standards.

And yes, the European Union does acquire “a legal identity”, but one should mention that the European Community has always had this. All that's happening is that the confusing dual structure of Community and Union is being simplified. Similar comments apply to the primacy of EU law, which has always been the case – the concept of EU law would make little sense if countries were able to agree something with their neighbours and then go away and ignore it at home.

It's vital that information about the proposed EU constitution is provided in the UK, and The Times has a leading role to play in this. But care must be be taken not to replicate, either consciously or unconsciously, any of the more lurid myths and distortions that we currently find in some other elements of our national media.

Richard Corbett

Labour MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber