Lisbon Treaty
Posted by Richard Younger-Ross, MP for Teignbridge, at 09:27, Mon 3 March 2008:
Discussions on the Lisbon Treaty and Northern Rock have dominated debates in the House over the past few weeks as well as providing many column inches to the press.
All three main parties; Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat are in favour of staying in Europe, and opinion polls show the majority of the public think likewise, albeit on a small majority. However, opinion is divided, with the government saying that no Referendum is needed on the matter, as the Lisbon Treaty is different to the now-defunct Constitution. The Conservatives believe that a referendum should take place, and the Liberal Democrats feel that a wider debate on the country’s membership of the EU is the only way forward and therefore are backing an in/out referendum instead.
I support my Party’s position calling for a wider referendum on our membership of Europe, and was extremely disappointed that the Speaker of the House of Commons did not allow our amendment to be debated early last week.
Having sat on the European Scrutiny committee since 2005, I have spent a large amount of time looking at this issue, and the previous Constitution. The Committee came to the conclusion that the Lisbon Treaty was extremely similar to the Constitution, and in fact, large passages had been copied wholesale between the two documents.
Whilst I still believe that the Liberal Democrat way forward on this issue is the right thing to do, I am also minded to support the Conservative motion for a Referendum if no other option is on the table.
As this issue is to be debated again in the House on Wednesday 5th March, with the amendment for a Referendum likely being put forward then; I would be interested to hear your views on this issue, and whether you think a Referendum is needed on this subject. If so, do you think that there should be an in/out referendum, one on the Lisbon Treaty or both?
Please email me with your thoughts on yrossr@parliament.uk
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