DID YOU KNOW that under the terms of our
EC membership, the European Court of Justice has the final say
in interpreting treaties and legislation. It can require Member
States to take "any necessary measures" to comply with
its judgements, and can impose penalty payments "as seen
appropriate" (i.e. unlimited) for non-compliance. Euro-apologists
try to tell us how much we need the Court to make EC membership
workable for everyone. We reprint the views of various legal authorities.
"Member States' courts... were bound
to apply Community Law. It could not be overridden by domestic
legal provisions however framed without being deprived of its
character as Community Law." (EC Court, Case 26/62)
"The supremacy of Community Law when
in conflict with national law is the logical consequence of the
federal concept of the Community" (H P Ipsen, 1964)
So much for Edward Heath's reassurances that there would be no
erosion of essential sovereignty!
"The transfer by the States from their
domestic legal system to the Community legal system of the rights
and obligations arising under the Treaty carries with it a permanent
limitation of their sovereign rights... against which a subsequent
act incompatible with the concept of the Community cannot prevail"
(Case 6/64).
This just shows the undemocratic nature of the EC - it would be
illegal to renegotiate the membership Treaties to return lost
powers to natrional governments.
"Once the Community has set up a common
organisation of the market for a single product, Member States
may no longer regulate the market at all" (Case 83/78). No
chance of different arrangements to replace the disastrous Common
Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy?
"The acquis communautaire is the entire
body of Community Law, including Treaties, all secondary legislation,
decisions etc... by virtue of the concept, member states commit
themselves to the goals of the Community as well as its Law."
(Cases 161/78 and 44/84).
The Maastricht treaties state that this shall be maintained "in
full" when it is revised following the 1996 Inter Governmental
Conference, thus militating against the return of lost decision-making
powers.)
" No provision of municipal law may
prevail over a Community law. The validity of a Community act
or its application remains unimpaired, even if it is alleged that
the basic rights of the national constitution were violated"
(Case 11/70, re: an alleged violation of the German national Basic
Law by a Community regulation).
This would invalidate the constitutional 'safeguards' that Germany
insisted upon when signing up for the Maastricht treaties, such
as the "right" to avoid the Single Currency.
Now what about our constitutional safeguards?
And although the European Commission's propaganda
in schools claims that the Court has no powers to overturn the
decisions of British courts, our courts are already obliged to
work within the rulings of the European Court [under section 3.1
of the European Communities Act, 1972]
References to European Court cases:
1 Law & the Institutions of the
European Union; Lasok & Bridge (Butterworths, 1994)
2 European Community Law, Charlesworth & Cullen (Pitmans Publishing,
1994)
