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EU glossary
Acquis communautaire
The name given to the sum total of all EU legislation since 1957. According
to the Occupied Field Doctrine this can only be
added to, not subtracted from – ie more powers can be transferred
to Brussels from member states, not vice versa.
Astroturf organisations
A form of propaganda pretty much pioneered, and certainly perfected, by
the EU. It sets up organisations which appear to represent grassroots
opinion but are in fact funded and controlled by Brussels. These "astroturf"
(ie artificial grassroots) organisations then call for the EU to do whatever
it wants, usually to assume some new power at the expense of national
governments, and the EU is able to claim that in doing so it is responding
to the will of the people.
Constitution
A treaty which would have given the EU legal personality as a state in
its own right (eg the right to sign treaties with other nations) whilst
robbing member states of almost all of their independence, it was signed
by EU leaders in 2004. However in 2005 the electorates of France and Holland,
two of the founder members of the EU, voted against ratifying the treaty.
Since it required unanimous approval, the EU leaders began a so-called
"pause for thought", essentially to work out how the will of
the people could be circumvented. The result was the Reform
Treaty.
Cooperation
Supposedly the reason for the EU's existence. However, the argument is
self-defeating: when it is in a country's interest to cooperate with a
neighbour, then surely it will do so without having to be compelled. EU
membership can only mean that nations will have to "cooperate"
even when it is damaging to their own interest. In any case, in what sense
is it "cooperation" to have the same laws as another country
even on entirely domestic matters with no cross-border element? This is
just harmonisation for its own sake.
High Representative for Europe
The term used in the Reform Treaty for the controversial
post of European Foreign Minister that the Constitution
would have created. As Ireland's Bertie Ahern commented, "It's the
original job,but they just put on this long title."
Occupied field doctrine
The principle that once a certain power (or competency) has been transferred
to Brussels from national governments, it will stay there in perpituity
and can never be transferred back. It was given legal force by the Maastricht
Treaty in 1992.
The IRA made a similar point in 1984 after their bomb in the Grand Hotel in Brighton failed to kill any members of the government – "You have to be lucky every time; we only have to be lucky once." We may have fought off the Constitution in 2005 and its replacement, the Lisbon Treaty in 2008, but the same idea will return over and over again until the Eurocrats get their way – and once they have the power that the Constitution (or whatever future versions of it will be called) grants them, there will be no getting it back.
Passarelle clause
A clause in the Reform Treaty which allows for further
transfers of power in future without any recourse to public opinion. Specifically,
policy areas that currently require unanimous approval can be changed
to qualified majority voting.
Qualified Majority Voting (or
QMV)
A voting system in which unanimity is not required for a motion to be
passed, meaning that no one member state can veto
a proposal.
Red lines
British governments tend to return from EU treaty negotiations insisting
that Britain's "red lines" have been safeguarded and key freedoms
have not been signed away. In the case of the Lisbon Treaty, there is
some doubt as to whether the European Court would uphold Britain's right
to opt out in these areas. In any case, what does it tell us if even pro-EU
politicians can find no better argument for the latest treaty than saying:
"Well it could have been worse, at least we didn't lose x, y and
z?"
Reform Treaty (now
renamed once again as the Lisbon Treaty)
The replacement for the Constitution that
the French and Dutch electorates rejected in 2005, the Reform Treaty is
said to be less far reaching than its predecessor. However, both documents
are exactly 63,000 words long. Both contain 250 clauses, of which 240
are exactly the same. The House of Commons European Scrutiny Committee
has pronounced that the documents are "substantially equivalent",
and this fact is openly admitted – even boasted – throughout
the rest of Europe. The fiction that they are different is maintained
only by Britain's Labour government, in order to avoid fulfilling its
promise that voters would be given a referendum on the Constitution.
The Reform Treaty would remove the veto that currently exists in 50 areas of decision making.
Spinelli, Altiero
Largely forgotten founder of the EU alongside the better known Jean Monnet
and Robert Schumann. He is most famous now for articulating the fact that
public will for European integration was "as yet non-existent"
and would have to be created by a sustained propaganda campaign, and even
then would always lag behind the Eurocrats' ambitions. For this reason
the propaganda has been combined with a policy of straightforward denial
where necessary, since it is easier to make people accept what has already
been done than to agree to it in advance.
Streamlining
This innocuous word is often cited as the reason for the Reform
Treaty, and indeed many previous treaties. The rules of the "club"
must be streamlined, we are told, as rules devised for a club with six
members will not work now that there are 27. The problem, if course, is
that 27 nations are unlikely to agree on anything, so nothing can be passed
if unanimity is required. Some would say it's not necessary to impose
the same solution on 27 vastly divergent countries, but of course Brussels
can't accept this or the EU's raison d'être disappears. So instead
it introduces QMV in areas that formerly required unanimity
– the real meaning of "streamlining" – meaning that
member states lose their veto and can be forced to
accept measures that damage their interest.
Subsidiarity
The principle that any decision will be made at the lowest possible level
of government, often cited as a safeguard against excessive centralisation
of power in Brussels. Of course, the problem is that when Brussels is
deciding which is the appropriate level for a particular decision to be
made, it will usually choose itself. This is not surprising since the
whole raison d'être of the EU is the belief that decisions, even
on the most trivial domestic matters, are best made continent-wide and
uniformly imposed regardless of local conditions.
Veto
The principle that any one member state can block a proposal that would
be damaging to its interest. This is typically offered as a reassurance
to any states wavering about joining the EU – they are told that
joining will never mean signing up to anything that would harm them, since
they could veto it. However, the history of the EU is marked by two consistent
tendencies: more power is transferred from member states to Brussels,
never the reverse (see Occupied Field Doctrine);
and decisions which required unanimity switch to Qualified
Majority Voting, thus robbing member states of their veto.
The Reform Treaty not only abolishes the veto in 50 areas of decision making, it includes a passarelle clause which allows for more vetoes to be abolished in future without the need for another treaty.