Conclusions of 24/25 March 2011 EU summit included the following:
2. Within the new framework of the European semester, the European Council endorsed the
priorities for fiscal consolidation and structural reform.
priority to restoring sound budgets and fiscal sustainability, reducing unemployment through
labour market reforms and making new efforts to enhance growth. All Member States will
translate these priorities into concrete measures to be included in their Stability or
Convergence Programmes and National Reform Programmes. On this basis, the Commission
will present its proposals for country-specific opinions and recommendations in good time for
their adoption before the June European Council.
3. In particular, Member States will present a multi-annual consolidation plan including specific
deficit, revenue and expenditure targets, the strategy envisaged to reach these targets and a
timeline for its implementation. Fiscal policies for 2012 should aim to restore confidence by
bringing debt trends back on a sustainable path and ensuring that deficits are brought back
below 3 % of GDP in the timeframe agreed upon by the Council. This requires in most cases
an annual structural adjustment well above 0.5% of GDP. Consolidation should be
frontloaded in Member States facing very large structural deficits or vey high or rapidly
increasing levels of public debt.
15. Member States will set out the main measures required to move towards the Europe 2020
headline targets as agreed in June 2010. They will also present policy measures to correct
harmful and persistent macroeconomic imbalances and improve competitiveness.
Strengthening governance
9. The package of six legislative proposals on economic governance is key to ensuring enhanced
fiscal discipline and avoiding excessive macroeconomic imbalances. It includes a reform of
the Stability and Growth Pact aimed at enhancing the surveillance of fiscal policies and
applying enforcement measures more consistently and at an earlier stage, new provisions on
national fiscal frameworks and a new surveillance of macroeconomic imbalances.
In other words, progress towards common economic government was marked. The Euroland states also signed up to a super pact for them. The measures above apply to all member states.
March 26, 2011
Single undemocratic socialist EU super state or leave the EU and have prosperity and free trade the choice is very clear.
There is no other alternative but MPs and MEPs will clearly be “persuaded” to vote through the former in there personal interests and against the voters clear wishes and interests – just leave now seems to be the clear message.
March 26, 2011
Will MPs get to vote on this at all? I doubt it.
When pressed on this issue, a number of times last week in the HoC, the government’s answer was fudged. Indeed, in response to Bernard Jenkin’s question on whether the House would get a vote, the minister replied that the House would be kept “informed”.
This is a very europhile government, careering headlong and willingly towards deeper integration.
Self-respecting conservative MPs and MEPs should now pull out all the stops and threaten to inflict damage on this government, if need be, if they take us deeper into the EU. If that means bringing the government down, so be it.
Enough!
Reply: We had a vote last week on more EU economic governance and the Treaty change – just 29 of us voted No.
March 27, 2011
Ipso facto – the Conservative party is not Eurosceptic so no point voting for them anymore….
Zorro
March 26, 2011
No thanks. Given that our constitution guarantees self-governance, how the hell did we get here and how the hell do we get out? What has happened in the UK in the past 15 years is bad enough; this on top of it too much. I wonder sometimes why my parents’ generation risked their lives? Certainly, it wasn’t for their country to be subdued, not with a bang but a whimper.
March 26, 2011
Subdued by a few good pensions, generous tax fee expenses a treaty or two and the promise of a few good low tax job in Brussels the use of BBC propaganda and the LIBDEMS .
Not a gun or tank to be seen – so much more pleasant don’t you think.
March 26, 2011
Shame they do not seem to be able to do this in Libya.
March 27, 2011
We are not being subdued, we are being subsumed.
March 27, 2011
Good point.
March 26, 2011
I’m sorry, I’m getting angrier by the day. This is all being done without us being asked. What sort of democracy is that? The government is stealing money from us to give Libyans a democracy when we haven’t even got one ourselves.
The EU is getting greedier by the day and so are our own MP’s who have less responsibility than they have ever had before because we take most of our orders from the EUSSR.
I’m really livid and so is everyone else I know.
This will not end well Mr Redwood.
March 26, 2011
I will be surprised if Libya will end up with a democracy at the end of it anyway.
Perhaps one like Zimbabwe might ensue.
I hope not.
March 27, 2011
Lifelogic
I share your concerns.
We may just be helping yet another rogue set of politicians.
We should be careful what we wish for.
History has a habit of repeating itself.
March 26, 2011
The people I know who voted to join the Common Market (they are few) thought they were joining just that – a trading area, certainly not a political block.
The words ‘European’ and ‘Union’ existed in those days. So why weren’t those words used instead of Common Market ? European Union far better describes the entity that our politicians keep telling us was the original plan.
They didn’t call it the European Union at the time of the original referendum because they knew people would have taken to the streets rather than have voted for it. Calling it the Common Market was a deliberate deception.
The original referendum is, therefore, void.
Even if there was no deception, the Common Market has ‘evolved’ so much since that it has required two name changes to accurately describe what it is.
Common Market connotes something entirely different to European Union.
Because of such a dramatic and fundamental changes there should have been at least one referendum by now.
This lie on its own is reason enough for us to get out. I’m in my 45th year and have had no say in this. Nor have millions of others like me.
March 26, 2011
Common Market connotes something entirely different to European Union.
Yes that is why the phrase was chosen. Chosen to sell the great lie – but it was seen through at the time by the sensible wing of the party. The trouble is they were so few then are still are now. Politics attracts the worse, in general career seeking, toe the line, snake oil salesmen.
The Lords is stuffed full of them.
March 26, 2011
Amazing that the 27 have endorsed some 34 pages of European Council conclusions, whereas this summit has almost gone unnoticed in the media.
A clear step towards EU convergence, which depending on political affiliation may be viewed as a good or a bad thing.
On the bright side for more eurosceptic Britains, you won’t have to contribute towards the ESM. In other words, if after 2012 eurozone country x has to be helped with its debt, Germany, France and other eurozone countries will foot the bill, so that you can continue to sell your profitable financial services to country x. Not a bad deal for Britain.
March 26, 2011
Peter,
Do wake up, at no time has the EU kept a promise to NOT involve a member country. You may be in favour of Eurosocialism but a large number of your fellow countrymen aren’t and a majority of the British electorate want out.
March 26, 2011
Peter,
I don’t for a second believe that it will be allowed to happen like that in practice.
zorro
March 26, 2011
Six non-euro states also signed up for the new improved”Euro-Plus-Pact”; due to being fed up with having to read what is going on in the EU, in the press.
BTW. Would Redwoodians please keep an eye out on e-bay for some cheap Tomahawk missiles. Raytheon has put the price up to $1.4 million a pop. About 15 of the 161 pops so far, are ours; we only have about 35 left.
BBTW. Dave was spinning yesterday that he would be watching the fuel companies, “like a hawk”. Unleaded R95 is a world traded commodity, just like crude oil. Yesterday, it was up from 40p a litre (Jan 4) to 51p. The magnanimous drop of 1p of duty, in the budget, will get lost in the decimal places.
BBBTW. I am getting a little peed off with hearing that the price of some government service is going up in ENGLAND; but not in NI; Wales or Scotland, where it is often supplied free, courtesy of the ENGLISH taxpayer.
HOT TIP. Don’t lick the envelope of your census return. You will be giving the government 25 million, traceable, DNA samples. ;-( This tip, courtesy of the head of paranoia in our street.
March 27, 2011
Yeah but aren’t we firing the ‘old’ Tomahawks, the $1.4m is for the ‘new improved’ ones isn’t it? What self-respecting Admiral wouldn’t want the new ones?
Replacing the Tomahawks would be cheaper than 60 million DNA tests!
March 27, 2011
Why not persuade a cat or dog to assist?
March 26, 2011
More evidence of the relentless move to a state called Europe but Cameron won’t have a referendum on our membership of the EU because as he said “I don’t believe an In/Out referendum is right, because I don’t believe that leaving the European Union would be in Britain’s interests”. We know the EU is not just undemocratic but anti-democratic and it sounds like Cameron has signed up to that way of governing too.
March 26, 2011
Indeed he has.
March 26, 2011
Brilliant. Just what’s required
March 26, 2011
When is the Eu going to have it’s audit signed off?
March 26, 2011
Never, and why should it now – democratic accountability does not exist.
zorro
March 26, 2011
Actually there is nothing there that is detrimental to the UK. In fact it coincides with a lot of reforms the UK has been pushing for.
It is sensible to have trading partners that are fiscally sound.
I am not a EU fan and want us out, but on this I think you are wrong today
We need to push for the commonwealth to be a financial & free trade zone that is our only escape from the EU
March 26, 2011
The coalition government will be doing most of these things anyway and does not need to report to the EU before doing so.
The real reason to veto common economic governance lies in the future after the next General Election. Then a Conservative government will want to repeal the Maastricht, Nice, Amsterdam and Nice Treaties. It will wish to minimise the role of government, to reduce the inflation target to zero, to further reduce corporation tax and to implement its own social policy. It will, won’t it, because if it doesn’t it is not worth voting for.
March 26, 2011
Regarding reducing inflation to zero – I though the whole idea of the independent Pound was that “we” could make this happen.
So far the independent Pound has been a dismal failure. Devalued against the Euro and inflation going up.
March 26, 2011
Sorry, repeal of the Lisbon Treaty should be in there.
March 26, 2011
And you are going to do – what? – about it?
Reply: I will continue to argue and vote against the transfer of more power to the EU
March 26, 2011
Voters continually say when asked that they do not want to be in the EU but they are not given a referendum.
John says that it is because we do not vote for a Eurosceptic Parliament. People vote on a range of issues at General Elections. We cannot vote for a Eurosceptic Party. Even if the Tories won 500 seats, I can guarantee that nothing would be different and we would still be in the EU in the same position.
This is the democratic illusion – soon there will few palatable options left.
zorro
March 27, 2011
Indeed. I am pretty sure I have voted Conservative for the first and last time. Having been of the Left for almost all my voting life, I now find myself to the right of the Conservative party. How the didgeridoo did that happen?
Like many many others now, I feel totally unrepresented. We do have an excellent local MP (Lib Dem), who wanted a referendum on the EU, but he is a lone voice.
One thing I do know – we are off if Labour get in again.
March 27, 2011
Sadly, people keep voting for the three major Political Parties that ALL WANT TO REMAIN IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. They are perhaps voting for the political Party they have been with for years, that what it may FEEL like to them-their loyalty is therefore to their political Party.
Only when the “penny drops” and they put their Country before their Political Party that has betrayed them-and I am deeply sorry to say this Conservative Party has betrayed them more than most- from as long ago as 1972, we will be paying for British Governments that have to obey EU orders (sorry Laws) like the rest of us.
March 26, 2011
The more you hear or read, the worse it gets.
I have said so many times, but why do not more than a couple of handful of MPs really get what is going on.
Perhaps they will eventually wake up, when at last they realise that all of their power (such as it is/was) has gone.
I wonder who they will try and blame ?
March 26, 2011
“Boots, boots, boots boots, marching up and down again”. The onward march of bureaucratic authoritarianism continues apace…
March 27, 2011
Government by the Bureaucratariat.
I hope folks saw that appalling picture of Herr Diktator Von Rompuy all lovey-dovey with that nice Gaddhafi?
March 26, 2011
What marks this rotten Parliament and rotten Government from any other before it is the blatant and shameless way that every election pledge and promise has been ignored and broken.
There is no democracy if there is no honesty in the making of election promises and the drafting of election manifestos.
The Coalition has made elections a total farce.
March 26, 2011
A couple of simple questions:
Did our government agree to this?
If so, Why?
Reply: yes, and don’t know.
March 26, 2011
The EU grip is tightening, and at great speed… it would appear the three main Parties, and hence the House, have been hijacked by those who have been led to believe they will be at the fore of a post democratic Europe. Obviously giving economic control away will eventually reduce the power of Westminster to that of a night watchman.
I had not realised previously, how few M.P.s can see, or care, about the transfer of powers to Brussels, especially given that the majority of people in the country do not support the move towards a US of Europe. No wonder Cameron was so keen to keep Europe off the agenda in the last election. Keep on telling it like it is !
March 26, 2011
10. Member states resolve to build a giant space rocket and travel to Pluto in search of extra-terrestrial cheese.
March 26, 2011
I’m surprised at all the Euro-sceptics getting hot under the collar about something that essentially says “All countries must not make a pigs ear of their finances”. Now if it was a certain former prime minister complaining….
March 26, 2011
The problem with Tory certainty is that it all points to stupidity.
March 26, 2011
Well the Left doesn’t believe in democracy — that’s why they’re staging riots, and arranging for only themselves to control the TV stations. That’s why they drag the odious BNP into court — so much easier to ban than argue at the ballot boxes!
It must have been just like this, in Weimar Germany. A conservative nation, watching in disbelief as treacherous politicians robbed them of their savings, while looking for someone to lead them.
All we need is a leader.
March 27, 2011
The left already control most of the TV stations certainly the BBC worse still the law and school now tell us what we can think and say.
A leader yes indeed. Had we had a sensible one we would now have had a tory majority too and would not be hamstrung with this Liberal pro EU, green, big state nonsense.
March 27, 2011
Mr. Redwood,
I don’t know and cannot speak for anyone else but for me, these edicts have a truly sinister ring to the tone of the words and sentences.
It conjures a vision of martial absolutism, rigidly structured in it’s diktats
The words of this proclamation, are dry, cold as ice, sere in a way only an automaton or cyber-being could achieve and aren’t they becoming just like that?
This faceless EU Nomenklatura, will kill democracy stone dead intoning; we no longer have need of it – we know what’s best for you!”
And, the people? Well, we are – merely units and all freedoms we once took for granted [now vanishing quicker than you realise] will be extinguished.
For me, it also has echoes of a far more evil empire which once tried and failed to enslave Europe.
And here is the rub, if it [the EU commission] is starting to sound like that lot. Then, how long before it starts to metamorphose and become exactly a mirror of that historical evil , to me this is the only road for these [monstrous] control freaks can march down.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely and, this is no joke.
March 27, 2011
My concern at the moment is EUCO 33/10 Draft EUROPEAN COUNCIL DECISION amending Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union with regard to a stability mechanism for Member States whose currency is the Euro.
It reads, “(2) At the meeting of the European Council of 28 and 29th October 2010, the Head of State or Government agreed on the need for Member states to establish a PERMANENT crisis mechanism to safeguard the financial stability of the euro as a whole and invited the President of the European Council to undertake consultations with the members of the European Council on a limited treaty change required to that effect”.
I am aware that Mr Hague’s states that we shall no enter the Euro THIS PARLIAMENT, but as the Lisbon Treaty makes clear the currency of the Union is the Euro-if the Euro is still in existence by the time of the next general election, we will no doubt have to join the Euro. There-fore this change NOW will affect everyone in this Country for it is indeed a great permanent constitutional change, and will affect each and every one of us here is the UK. I am aware that the promised referendum IS INDEED NEEDED before this change can be made. This change cannot be made as suggested in Appendix 2: Draft European Council Decision amending Article 136:Explanitory Memorandum. I look forward to your Comments.
Reply: I am against the UK ever joining the Euro – which would need a referendum – and against us being part of any bail out mechanism for Euro members. I have voted accordingly, and pressed for an immediate referendum on transfer of other powers which the government and this Parliament does not intend to give us.
March 28, 2011
J.R.
Is there any reason why the Govt could not stop the British Embassy closure plan if they wanted ?
March 29, 2011
Whatever happened to the “sovereignty of Parliament” concept, and more specific the article of faith up to now accepted by all parties that
“No Parliament can bind its successors”?
There is a simple answer therefore for Osborne in relation to Eurozone bail-outs. It is simply to say on behalf of us the British taxpayers he is supposed to represent:
CAN’T PAY. WON’T PAY.
The EU can then get stuffed.
March 31, 2011
Where are all the old Tory stalwarts of old, who would have fought openly for this country, where have they gone, surely they’ve not all died off? No, we see them on the back benches, in the 1922 committee, but they say nothing, this speaks volumes. Please Mr Redwood can you not stir some of the old Tory blues into action to save this country from extintion. You once were the store of old families, pride, and fortitude who did in times of need come to this countries aid, and many followed. Where are you all? No voices challenging this inept government that as taken over. A government that made promises and then refused to uphold them, that is sad and really not on. Cameron, as lied, confused, made excuses about the EU, his promises of a Bill to protect our country is weak, we all know it. The EU overrules everything except of course our souls, and that’s the crunch of the matter, the will to disobey. If Tories believe they can muster through without public statements about the EU coming willingly, then they are truely lost. UKIP will begin to look more of a proposition as the next election looms. You cannot have your feet in two camps, you have to show your colours and stamp them on the mast for all to see. If you want voters to support you, ie Tories, then you must come out fighting for what the country wants. Out of the EU. The sooner this sinks in the better.