Lib Dems want 'key' EU reforms to continue

Monday, 6 June 2005 12:00 AM

The Government is being urged to help push through some of the key reforms contained in the EU Constitution treaty.

Two senior Liberal Democrats want the UK to use its forthcoming presidency of the European Union to implement three key innovations proposed by the stalled treaty that would bring the EU closer to people.

These include the Council of Ministers opening up its decision making process to the public, and reinforcing the principle of subsidiarity where decision-making is made at the lowest possible level.

In a paper to party colleagues, foreign affairs spokesman Nick Clegg and leader of the party's MEPs, Chris Davies, also want to see the European Commission agree to put citizens' petitions - popular calls for new laws backed by more than a million signatures -before EU ministers and the European Parliament.

The pair want to see action to tackle public disaffection with the EU, irrespective of the fate of the constitutional treaty.

Unlike the more contentious parts of the constitutional treaty, the three measures do not require new laws to be introduced, and therefore can by pass the ratification process.

Mr Clegg said: "Whatever doubts there may be about the future of the treaty, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are good things in the constitutional treaty to which no-one who wants positive reform and improvement can object.

"The need for political leadership to introduce long overdue changes to the way the EU is governed is now more urgent than ever. The UK government must use its EU Presidency to demonstrate that the EU can be made more open and accountable. If not, what little public trust there is left in the EU may evaporate altogether."

The Liberal Democrats argue that national parliaments should be given a role in ensuring proposals from Brussels do not breach the principle of subsidiarity.

And they say that the influence of national parliaments in shaping EU laws would be hugely increased if measures were taken to ensure their co-operation on a formal basis.

Mr Davies added: "National parliaments have wasted their huge moral and political authority by failing to cooperate and speak together about EU laws which they will eventually have to implement.

"It doesn't need a European Constitution to bring about a shift in the balance of power between Brussels and national capitals, it just needs MPs to start talking to one another across the national divides."

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell will detail the Liberal Democrats' demands in reply to Jack Straw's statement to the House of Commons later today.

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