Tories ‘won’t give up’ on EU treaty referendum

William Hague, the UK shadow foreign secretary, pledged to put the EU’s Reform Treaty to a public vote if the Conservatives were to come to power, as the Tories continue to lead in opinion polls ahead of a general election which Labour must call before May 2010.

“If the Lisbon Treaty is unratified and on the table at the point we take office then, of course, we would hold a referendum,” Hague said on 28 September, speaking ahead of the Tories annual conference. Conservative Party leader David Cameron has pledged to run next year’s European elections on a promise to hold a referendum. 

The treaty ratification process was formally completed in the UK in July. The text was set to come into force before the European elections in June 2009, but its rejection by the Irish in a public vote has brought this timetable into question (EURACTIV 13/06/08). 

The Commission launched a series of post-Lisbon debates in Ireland yesterday (29 September) to address citizens’ concerns. These include fears that the new treaty would annul the country’s traditional neutrality and that Irish soldiers would be conscripted into an EU army, as revealed by a recent Eurobarometer conducted by TNS (EURACTIV 10/09/09). 

The EU has been wooing the Irish government amid hopes that it may yet hold a revote on the text before the Parliament elections, but Ireland has thus far refused to commit to any timetable. Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker was the first EU leader to admit that holding a fresh vote before next June was unrealistic (EURACTIV 18/09/08). 

It seems unlikely that the ruling Labour government would call an election before the treaty ratification process is completed, with recent polls showing the Tories ahead. The Labour government came to power in 1997 and got re-elected in 2001 and 2005. The government is elected for a five-year term, but can decide to set the date of the election at any time within this period. The latest would be May 2010. 

The text must be ratified by all 27 member states before it can enter into force, but its future is uncertain, given that the process has been put on hold in the Czech Republic and Germany. Hague refused to rule out the possibility of holding a referendum even if the ratification process were completed across the rest of Europe if a Tory government were to take office. “We haven’t made the decision yet,” he said. 

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