European Union Constitution

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 11:03 am on 29 April 2004.

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Photo of Margo MacDonald Margo MacDonald Independent 11:03, 29 April 2004

There are wheels within wheels, as they say. There are back channels and there is First Minister's question time. FMQT is not the forum in which to attempt to build consensus.

Having congratulated the SNP and tempered my congratulations, I want to castigate the members who sit on Labour's front bench. Their display has been like that of Pavlov's dog. In snapping at the SNP for party-political reasons, they have sold Scotland short. We have not been particularly well served by the diplomatic abilities of the members on the Labour and SNP front benches.

Andy Kerr moved on from fishing to discuss the economy and the importance to it of the expanded European market. I draw his attention to article 11.3 of the draft constitution, which is on the economy; I think that it might have been mentioned already. It states:

"The Union shall have competence to promote and coordinate the economic and employment policies of the Member States."

That cannot be done without impinging on taxation. I suggest that that is one of the reasons why Gordon Brown is not among the leading supporters of the draft constitution. I imagine that he has a great interest in how that statement of intent impacts on his clear idea of how the economy should be managed. To be fair to Gordon Brown, it appears that the benchmarks that he established have been met more successfully than have those that were established in Europe.

It is important to examine what the draft treaty says—like it or lump it—because it seeks to create a new legal entity. Although I appreciate what Irene Oldfather said about the need for transparency in relation to Council decisions and so on, the new legal entity will have sovereignty that is comparable with that of other legal national Governments. That means that it will be a different animal to the body that preceded the treaty.