A 2003 report by Ken Clarke argued that a Supremacy Act, similar to the UK Sovereignty Act proposed today, would be "fundamentally incompatible" with EU membership.
A 2003 report by Ken Clarke argued that a Supremacy Act, similar to the UK Sovereignty Act proposed today by David Cameron, would be “fundamentally incompatible” with EU membership and a “recipe for anarchy”.
The report (no longer on the Internet but available for download here), published by the Tory Europe Network, argued that:
“Throughout our eighteen years in Government, we always accepted that the European Union could not possibly work without its law taking priority over national laws within its own competence. There has never been any serious doubt that for us to purport to reverse this principle by an Act of Parliament would be fundamentally incompatible with our continued membership of the Union, and would be taken as an immediate signal of our withdrawal from full membership.
“Ideas such as a ‘supremacy act’ asserting the superiority of British law or giving the British courts the power to overrule judgements of the European Court of Justice undermine one of the fundamentals of the European Union – the universal application of EU law which actually needs to be strengthened in some areas to ensure that every State obeys the rules.
“Without a universally applicable and enforceable body of European law, the European single market simply could not function as it does. British businesses can treat the other [members] – as part of their ‘home market’ safe in the knowledge that common standards and rules apply. And of course an attempt to end the supremacy of EU law in areas where it does not suit us implies that we would be happy to see other EU countries do the same. But this would mean that areas where even anti-Europeans agree that common legal standards benefit us could also be under threat. It is a recipe for anarchy.”
David Cameron said today:
“So as well as making sure that further power cannot be handed to the EU without a referendum, we will also introduce a new law, in the form of a United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill, to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament.”
A spokesman for Ken Clarke told Left Foot Forward, “The United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill promised today by David Cameron does not do any of the things that Ken Clarke was criticising in his 2003 paper. As David has made clear, the Bill would not mean striking down individual items of EU legislation but would provide ultimate constitutional safeguards against any attempts by EU judges to erode our sovereignty. Ken fully supports this and the series of measures announced today for which the Conservative Party will seek a mandate at the next general election. “
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16 Responses to “Clarke in 2003: Supremacy Act “fundamentally incompatible” with EU membership”
AndrewSparrow
@wdjstraw has found Ken Clarke quote saying Supremacy Act would be 'fundamentally incompatible' with EU membership http://bit.ly/4cBuqM
Jon Dennis
RT @AndrewSparrow @wdjstraw has Ken Clarke quote saying Supremacy Act 'fundamentally incompatible' with EU membership http://bit.ly/4cBuqM
willstraw
Liam,
Thanks for your comment. The referendum promise was different from his proposed “uk sovereighty act”. This is the text of what Cameron said yesterday:
“So as well as making sure that further power cannot be handed to the EU without a referendum, we will also introduce a new law, in the form of a United Kingdom Sovereignty Bill, to make it clear that ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament …
And he went on to say:
“That will mean limiting the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction over criminal law to its pre-Lisbon level, and ensuring that only British authorities can initiate criminal investigations in Britain.”
This sounds very similar to the bogeyman bill that Clarke so feared six years ago:
“Ideas such as a ‘supremacy act’ asserting the superiority of British law or giving the British courts the power to overrule judgements of the European Court of Justice undermine one of the fundamentals of the European Union”
And there’s more in the report if you download it (link above).
All the best,
Will
Roger
Well done for finding that Clarke report – no wonder he’s been pulling out of previously scheduled media events to avoid being called on it.
However I think Unseen and Jon are right – Cameron can pass any law he likes to pander to the Eurosceptics – however we will only break our treaty commitments by taking concrete actions that violate them and I very much doubt a) that he will risk doing so or that b) if he did the relevant EU bodies will do anything much about it.
Italy for example is in radical breach of several economic commitments it entered into as part of the Eurozone – but as there is no practical prospect of them being able to reduce their budget deficits by anything like the requisite amounts for at least a decade nobody is talking about expelling them.
Roger
In fact if I read http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=aZm98qFimxBc correctly no fewer than 18 of the EU27 are either currently in breach of the 3% of GDP deficit limit set by the stability pact or will be shortly.
Whether this constitutes an actual breach of treaty obligations by two-thirds of the EU I’ll leave to someone more expert than me to indicate.