In France, apparently, there’s not much discussion over Diamond Giscard’s proposed EU ‘constitution’. Why? Well according to my ‘France guy’ (you know who you are) the French have now decided that it’s not going to go through, so further debate is just a waste of time. Encore du vin, SVP.
That’s only a little bit less optimistic than the Maginot Line, I fear.
In more realistic Britain, the debate continues, much of it focused on the proposed Article 10 (EU law “shall have primacy over the law of the member states”). In a sense (and that’s an important qualifier) this has been true since the UK joined the EEC (as it then was) in 1973, but this was not something that was widely understood by the public at large. A positive side effect of the current controversy is that this is now beginning to change.
The Economist takes up the story:
“In Downing Street they are uncomfortably aware that polls suggest that only 10% of the British people accept the proposition that EU law should override British law. It is rather as if, having happily consumed factory-made sausages for 30 years, consumers are now being asked to read the ingredients on the side of the packet and consider carefully if they want to keep reconstituted udders.”
Eeeeew
My compromise? Keep the sausages and junk the primacy of EU law within the UK except as an explicit (and unilaterally revocable) derogation of British parliamentary authority.