EU Diehards 'Ready to Gang up' on Britain
by David Rennie in Brussels

Plans have been drawn up to create an ad-hoc "core" of countries determined to pursue closer integration, in case Britain rejects the draft treaty establishing a European constitution, it was claimed yesterday.

Senior officials close to the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, have told a leading pro-European think-tank, the Centre for European Reform (CER), that a scheme exists for a new, inner-circle of true believers, ready for unveiling the "day after" a British No vote, said Charles Grant, the CER director.

Officials in Paris and Brussels have also contributed.

The draft constitution must be ratified by all 25 EU member states, through referendums and parliamentary votes over the next two years.

Britain will be one of the last to hold a referendum, well into next year, and opinion polls indicate it will vote for rejection.

In a new pamphlet, What happens if Britain votes no? Mr Grant cites top officials to predict that a British No would most probably lead to the creation of a "messy core" of pro-integration states.

They would work on eight or nine chosen goals, such as merging their armed forces and embassies. France and Germany would lead the core, inviting Belgium, Luxembourg, and other pro-integration EU states to join them. Britain would become increasingly irrelevant.

"We would start with an objective… then work out how to get there," a German official told Mr Grant. "A decision to merge our armed forces could take a decade, like the creation of the euro. The key is political will."

A new "secretariat" would manage co-operation.

The plans also call for the harmonisation of criminal and civil law, the establishment of a European criminal court and tax harmonisation, and a single seat for core countries in international financial institutions.

Mr Grant, a pro-European, also predicted EU enthusiasts would try to salvage parts of the rejected constitution, such as its creation of a European foreign minister. Britain would find itself prey to ganging up by the inner core, increasingly forced to follow decisions in which it had little say.

But Mr Grant dismissed talk of Britain being thrown out of the EU in the event of a No vote. "Nobody wants to kick us out, we have the best soldiers, the best diplomats, and one of the best performing economies in Europe."
The Daily Telegraph, 1st March 2005

PHILLIP DAY'S COMMENT: The above article does hint at how Britain is loathed by the EU diehards for not pitching in with total integration, and yet while we are ominously promised Britain will become increasingly irrelevant if we don't fully integrate, we are not being 'kicked out' of the EU! Hmmm. Couldn't be because we are paying for everything, could it? Couldn't be because Britain's the fourth biggest economy in the world by GDP and the corrupt, self-serving EU Commission knows the books won't balance without Britain's massive subsidy? (By the way, the EU has not had its accounts signed off for EIGHT YEARS because of fraud and corruption). In an age where nest-feathering has become a way of life in Europe, Britain would do best to go back to what she thought she was doing in 1972, namely sign a free trade agreement with Europe and, as usual, resolutely keep 23 miles of stormy Channel between us and this baleful European integration project we've had to tolerate and defeat on two previous occasions.

VOTE NO TO THE EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION!
YES TO TRADE WITH EUROPE
NO TO BEING RULED BY EUROPE

Further Resources
A free copy of my documentary video,The Real Face of the European Union, is available to all attendees to my British and Irish venues in 2005. Also: Ten Minutes to Midnight by Phillip Day

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