eu treaty

THE OBSERVER

Boost for referendum on EU treaty
Nicholas Watt, political editor, Sunday January 20, 2008
Influential committee of MPs says there is 'no material difference' between new measure and the old constitution
A cross-party campaign to hold a referendum on the controversial new European Union treaty will receive a boost today when an influential committee of MPs declares that the document differs little from the draft European constitution that would have been put to the country.
On the eve of a parliamentary vote on the Lisbon treaty, MPs on the Labour-controlled foreign affairs select committee state that there is 'no material difference' between the two texts in critical areas.

'We conclude that there is no material difference between the provisions on foreign affairs in the constitutional treaty, which the government made subject to approval in a referendum, and those in the Lisbon treaty on which a referendum is being denied,' the MPs will say.
The intervention will complicate plans by ministers to ratify the treaty in Parliament without holding a referendum. The process will begin tomorrow night (21/01/08) when MPs hold an initial vote. This will be followed by up to two months of line-by-line scrutiny of the treaty on the floor of the Commons, where a cross-party group of Eurosceptic MPs, including most Tories, will attempt to amend the treaty bill to include a referendum.

Their bid will fail because Nick Clegg has decided, in his first major decision as Liberal Democrat leader, to abstain.
(What more would you expect from a Liberal.., That is the cowards way out..Web Master)
Read full article..HERE

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