UK offered justice veto in EU treaty talks

LUCIA KUBOSOVA

16.05.2007 @ 09:27 CET

The German EU presidency is considering to let the UK keep its national veto on EU justice matters in a revised EU constitution, but the new British leadership has listed other red lines seen as unaccepable for Berlin.

According to the Financial Times, the UK came out as the toughest opponent of an emerging compromise on a new-look treaty following the first common meeting of national negotiators in Berlin on Tuesday (15 May).

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Insiders suggest German chancellor Angela Merkel is "willing to let London choose whether to take part in police and judicial co-operation on criminal issues," the paper reported.

But it added that the UK is also opposing any reference to the Charter of Fundametal Rights in the treaty, as well as a technical shift away from the bloc's "pillar system" of competence distribution between member states and EU institutions.

Both elements are strongly defended by countries that have ratified the constitution but also by advocates of maintaining the constitution's provisions aimed at improving the bloc's efficiency.

The Charter of Fundamental Rights originally made its way into the constitution - rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005 - partly for symbolic reasons, to outline the existing rights of EU citizens but also to make those rights legally binding in all the member states.

The list of areas with qualified majority instead of unanimity voting, and the new way to stipulate which issues are decided at EU or national level - instead of the current pillar system - are seen by the pro-constitution camp as crucial to introduce more effective decision-making in the enlarged union.

But people around Gordon Brown, Tony Blair's successor as the next UK prime minister, fear these changes would go too far to have the revised "amending" treaty ratified by parliament rather than through a referendum.

For the moment, national governments have a veto in areas such as criminal, police or immigration - which critics argue led to numerous delays on crucial decisions by justice and interior ministers in the past.

But despite signing up to the draft constitution in 2004, the UK later again showed its opposition to scrapping the veto during last year's discussions about the possible use of a clause in the existing treaty to shift areas such as fight against terrorism to unanimity voting.