Britain's commitment to the EU has been questionable

The UKIP leadership, and the extreme right of the Conservative Party, are hiding behind the plausible but ultimately dishonest arguments that the EU has stripped away our sovereignty, is undemocratic, bureaucratic, secretive, is not transparent and makes all our laws.

What these extreme euro cynics fail to explain is the degree to which the EU is run by member state governments, Britain included, not Brussels.

The idea that Brussels has somehow accumulated independent powers and has the ability to make decisions without the input of national governments or their numerous representatives is the ultimate fiction.

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Gove, Johnson and Duncan-Smith would have us believe the EU is some out-of-control monster desperate to destroy a thousand years of glorious British history. This myth-making continues to poison the debate.

So who runs the EU? Despite the federalist elements of the European Court of Justice and the European Parliament, the 28 member states run the show in the form of a formidable quadruple lock on how the states exercise authority and control power. 

First, the European Council, comprising all member states, decides the strategic direction of the EU and controls the process of enlargement whereby each member state has a veto on any country seeking to join the EU. This process is formidable, for example, countries seeking to join such as Turkey and the former Balkan states need the approval of each member state, i.e. the unanimous support which the Brexit campaign finds it so hard to understand.  

Second, every aspect of EU action has to be treaty based, with each treaty having to be approved by all the heads of governments in the European Council, the parliament of each member state and in some cases, for example in Ireland, by a national referendum. 

Third, the European Parliament is the only parliament in the Western world that cannot initiate legislation; it still has extremely limited powers and relies on being instructed by the EC and the Council of Ministers. 

Fourth, the Council of Ministers, comprising ministers of the 28 member states, works on legislation to be dealt with by the EU Parliament and the EC: member states control the legislation. Responsibility for the actions of the EU, since its inception in 1958, lies with the member states including Britain. It now seems ironic and disingenuous to blame all the ills on the EU when Britain and the other 27 countries control the whole operation! 

The perceived problems and weaknesses of the EU have more to do with Britain trying to cover up its detached and superficial engagement since 1973 than the EU itself or the alleged conspiratorial behaviour of other member states, especially Germany.

Since joining over 40 years ago, the ambivalence, sometimes indifference, of successive governments and political parties, especially the Tories, has ensured a less than serious commitment to the EU. 

Sharing sovereignty already exists. Philip Stephens of the Financial Times wrote that, “the castaway alone on a desert island may be sovereign over all she or he surveys”, but is also “impotent”. Jonathan Freedland in the Guardian added: “A vote to leave the EU would certainly give an instant sugar rush that would feel a lot like an assertion of sovereignty. But a sovereign nation understands that to share what it has in order to get more can be not an act of weakness – but of great strength.” 

Misconceptions about European law abound. An objective assessment by the House of Commons Library concluded that between 1997-2009, just under seven per cent of primary legislation in the UK and just over 14 per cent of secondary legislation, could be tied to the obligations of implementing EU rules. 

EU ‘opt outs’ are rarely talked about by the euro cynics. These allow nation states to withdraw from legislation, treaties and certain policy areas. Britain, not surprisingly, has more opt-outs than any other country in the EU. Opt-outs are arrived at through negotiation. None of Britain’s opt-outs has ever been the subject of a referendum.

Britain’s exclusion from the euro and the Schengen borders agreement are, arguably, far more important issues, and have bigger consequences for Britain than the minor concessions that led to Cameron’s EU referendum. 

The lack of democracy in the EU is another Brexit claim. The European Parliament, directly elected since 1979, remains weak and so far has generated little excitement or enthusiasm among British voters. But this is what the 28 member states want. Britain and the other 27 countries are unwilling to cede any more authority, power or control from their own parliaments or national governments. They believe in the sovereignty of their own institutions but to date are not willing to see the European Parliament strengthened.

Meantime, the shrill criticism of the EU’s lack of democracy from those who are denying any further transfer of power will inevitably have a hollow ring to it.

This merely confirms the view that this referendum is about the poisonous civil war raging inside the Tory party and has very little to do with the EU or Britain’s membership or the people of this country.