Conference of European States (Chapter 3)

I write on the third “working morning” since last Friday.  It is now Tuesday 28 June 2016.  The objective of this Blog and the next is to put forward a compromise negotiating package for the BREXIT Art.50 negotiations.  If you search this Blog, you will find my principal proposal, published a few days ago, on Saturday 25 June 2016.

Just by way of reminder, and refresher, let me spell out my objectives –

(a)        To give effect to the substance of the Brexit “case” in the democratic referendum: I accept that the Referendum vote rejected much of the legal paraphernalia of the “European Union”, while expressing a continuing interest in maintaining good relations with the other 27 member-states – “we are against the EU, but we are not against Europe”;

(b)        To retain the distinctive character of the European alliances and perceptions, currently expressed within the Lisbon Treaty, and to replace the EU legal structure, for all future purposes, with a looser “associative” system;

(c)         To abandon the “free movement of labour” – which I contend was always an intellectual mistake, from the outset, and is politically unrealistic.  We should allow each member-state to make its own way in the global migratory whirlwind which is blowing all around us, and to “control” its own state borders, if appropriate by joining in sub-groups with other member-states, by contract;

(d)        To remove from the present Constitution of the EU, or re-design the supra-national elements (Parliament, Court, legislative functions, independent Civil Service) which have become increasingly objectionable to many sectors of European political and popular opinion, thus taking those cards out of right-wing political hands, and establishing a more flexible framework for future initiatives;

(e)        To give the new Europe a less provocative name – I suggest “Conference of European States”.

I now propose to address the implications of Objective C – the removal of the “free movement of labour” and the restoration of conventional border controls.  That will follow, in Chapter 4…

Roger Warren Evans

Barrister-at-Law [Retired]   Swansea              23 St Peter’s Road  Newton  Swansea SA3 4SB    Tel: 01792-366134   roger@warrenevans.net