Negotiating Approach

Negotiating a new relationship with Europe

Global Vision's polling shows that our vision of a new, looser relationship with Europe is the preferred outcome for a majority of the British public. The critical questions are not about that desired outcome, but how feasible it is to achieve that.

The terms of Britain's current membership of the European Union are defined by a series of international treaties between the member states - The Treaty of Rome, The Single European Act, and the Treaties of Maastricht, Amsterdam and Nice - each of which has been passed into UK law through an accompanying Act of Parliament.[1]  The new relationship would require the UK's adherence to those Treaties to be replaced by a new agreement or Treaty between the UK and other member states. This would define the terms on which Britain retained membership of a European Free Trade Area and continued to participate in selected EU programmes while opting out of the main body of current Treaty provisions establishing the EU in its current form.

The current agreement between Switzerland and the EU provide one existing, workable model which demonstrates that an arrangement of this general type is feasible and could work to the benefit of both the EU and the UK. Under these terms Switzerland and the members of the European Union continue to operate the established European Free Trade Area (EFTA). However, Switzerland is not a member of the EU customs union, nor is it required to automatically adopt the legislation of the EU single market. Since it is not bound by the EU Treaties, Switzerland does not participate in the other institutions and legislative processes of the EU but has chosen to participate in a number of individual EU programmes - and makes a negotiated contribution to the EU budget to pay for its share of those programmes, including the fund to support development in the new EU members. [2] While the UK would want to tailor its own arrangements - as described below - the Swiss model shows such an arrangement is perfectly realistic.

While it would be open to the UK to declare at any time that it wished to renegotiate its membership along these lines - and use its negotiating leverage as a current participant  in normal EU business to bring others to the table - the current ongoing negotiations over a new EU Treaty giving effect to the draft ‘Constitution for Europe' provides a timely context for those discussions to take place.

The draft constitution - which was signed by all Heads of Government in 2004 and has since been ratified by 16 member states strictly speaking (a further 2 countries have almost ratified) - replaces all the existing EU Treaties with one new Treaty that creates the European Union as a single legal entity that both incorporates existing EU law and established ‘acquis communitaire' and defines new powers and legislative processes.[3] While it was rejected by referendums in France and the Netherlands, both the Commission and Member States have expressed their determination to negotiate a revised package over the next year that resolves the current impasse and allows the Constitution (or key elements of it) to proceed. However a new Treaty replacing the old Treaties can only be enacted with the unanimous consent of all the contracting parties - which includes the UK.  Britain therefore has the power of veto that can prevent other EU members proceeding with their new Treaty unless it also satisfies our requirements. This creates a natural context in which to negotiate our preferred new relationship as part of an overall EU settlement.

In practice a UK government would simply inform the other EU members that the proposed Constitution - or the Treaty changes that are proposed to implement some or all of its provisions - are not acceptable to the UK parliament or public, and cannot be ratified. If it had been put to a referendum and rejected, the UK government would in any case have no choice. However rather than acting as a block on those countries which want to proceed, the UK would be prepared to negotiate and assent to a modified new Treaty to replace the existing EU Treaties. This new Treaty would allow other countries to proceed with the Treaty provisions implementing the Constitution for that group, while establishing a new relationship for the UK (and possibly other countries) outside the provisions of the Constitution. A possible model for this new enabling Treaty is set out in a Global Vision perspective - ‘A new Treaty framework for a European Commonwealth'.

Once this Treaty had been agreed, a new Act would be passed by the UK parliament which would replace (and therefore repeal) the existing EU Treaty provisions. At that point the UK would no longer be bound by the EU legislative and legal processes or the existing acquis, and would have no requirement to adopt future EU regulations and directives. We would adopt our own legislation as appropriate where we agreed to participate in a future common programme. However there would remain a large body of existing UK legislation and regulations which have been brought in over the years in order to comply with EU requirements. It would be open to the UK government and parliament to review all these laws and decide which we wished to retain as UK legislation, which we would modify, and which we would simply repeal.

NB, March 2007

[1] See Global Vision Fact Sheets, Section2, for a description of current Treaties

[2] See Global Vision Fact Sheet 1.5 for further details of the Swiss relationship

[3] See Global Vision Fact Sheets 2.8 -2.11 for a description of the Constitutional Treaty and its current ratification process