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Conservative MEP Leader Says EU Constitution is Wrong for Europe
Tuesday January 11, 2005
Conservative MEPs have dismissed the EU Constitution as wrong for Europe and voted to reject it, urging British people to do the same in next year's referendum.
Timothy Kirkhope, Leader of the Conservative MEPs, told the European Parliament that "Europe has missed an historic opportunity to modernise it's workings to meet the demands of an enlarged and more diverse Union. A simplifying Treaty could have tackled the real issues facing us: relative economic decline, fraud and waste and greater involvement of national parliaments in the decision-making processes.
"My Party Leader has said: countries have constitutions and we do not wish to see a country called Europe. I agree. Europe must develop as an equal partnership of nation states. When the British people and perhaps others reject this Constitution, they will not be rejecting membership of the Union. They will be signalling very clearly their opposition to any European integration process.
"As a member of the Constitutional Convention, I made great efforts to try to persuade colleagues that the emerging draft Constitution was wrong for Europe in principle and wrong for Europe's citizens. Throughout, I argued that although Europe did not need a constitution, a simplifying Treaty would have been enough to modernise and simplify the institutions and workings of the Union. I even submitted a draft of a possible Alternative Constitution. Prime Minister Blair then seemed to agree with me. Now, he embraces the Constitution as drawn and faces an ignominious defeat when the British people vote on the matter."
The European Parliament voted to endorse the European Constitution by 500 votes to 137 (with 40 abstentions) and called for its ratification across the EU by the middle of next year.
Read the full speech
