IWR in the news

17/03/08

Scots must be allowed say on European treaty

Edinburgh Evening News

If Brown won't hold a referendum, then Holyrood must, says Alex Orr.

WITH the House of Commons voting against the holding of a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty, also known as the Lisbon Treaty, where does that now leave us? Well, it leaves us with a treaty which is opposed, according to recent polling, by almost 90 per cent of the population. The polls also suggest that 64 per cent of those in the Lothians want to see a referendum on the subject.

The Labour Party, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and SNP all promised a referendum at the General Election in 2005. But the constitution was discarded after Dutch and French voters rejected it in referendums later that year. The Labour government and Liberal Democrats subsequently dropped their calls for a public vote.

The EU Reform Treaty, signed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other national leaders at Lisbon in December, was designed as a replacement, but the contents – including the abolition of dozens of vetoes and the creation of the new posts of EU president and foreign policy chief – are almost exactly the same as the constitution.

Calls for a Scotland-only referendum on the treaty will be aired at next month's SNP spring conference.

That comes after a series of mini-referendums undertaken by the 'I Want a Referendum' campaign. They were carried out last month through postal votes in ten Labour and Liberal Democrat marginal seats and found that some 88 per cent of the public want a referendum on the treaty, and a turnout of 36.2 per cent was in line with parliamentary by-elections, higher than local elections, and substantially higher than European elections.

In addition, last December, the Scottish Parliament voted overwhelmingly for the UK Government to hold a referendum on the treaty, and our neighbour, Ireland, is pledged to have a referendum, which will take place in June.

While Gordon Brown continues to show his distrust of the electorate and has broken his promise to hold a referendum, it is vital that a vote is held in Scotland. What we are dealing with here is something that goes wider than Europe – it's an issue of trust in politics, and ensuring the voice of the Scottish people is heard loud and clear in the corridors of power in London and Brussels. Should they vote 'no', this is indeed a powerful weapon, and would put enormous pressure on the UK Government and Brussels for reforms in key areas such as fisheries.

A referendum would also serve as a catalyst for a long overdue debate about our membership of the European Union, re-engaging people in the political process, from which they are currently largely disengaged, and serving to restore faith in politics.

• Alex Orr is a board member of the European Movement and referendum campaigner