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The Ninth Congress
for Democracy
was held on
Friday 16 May
2003
at Church House, Dean's
Yard, Westminster
The Ninth Congress for
Democracy was held on Friday 16 May 2003 in the General Assembly
Hall of Church House, Westminster. (Full
minutes available here).The programme for the day was
divided into two parts.
- The first session looked at the current
state of play in the fight to keep the pound and how the
campaign should be pursued, whether a referendum is imminent
or postponed.
Nigel Smith, Chairman of the No Campaign, was our
guest speaker for this session. (Full
text of speech here).
- The second topic of the day was legal
and constitutional developments in the EU, focusing in
particular on the work of the Convention on the Future
of Europe. The implications for our democracy of the
Convention’s proposed European Constitution are not as
widely recognised as they should be. This Constitution
endows the EU with a single legal personality, a unitary
structure and EU citizenship for the peoples of Europe; in
effect, the European superstate will have arrived. The
Convention's proposals are published on: http://european-convention.eu.int/bienvenue.asp?lang=EN
The Rt Hon Lord Howell of Guildford
(David Howell), Opposition Spokesman in the House of Lords on
Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs, introduced this session.
(Full
text of speech here)
Martin Howe QC, Chairman of the Working
Party set up by the Eighth Congress, presented the group’s
report on this. (Full
text of Report here.)
(Full
text of Martin Howe's speech here)
The following resolutions were passed by
the Ninth Congress for Democracy:
The Ninth Congress
recognises that the draft Constitutional Treaty presently
being formulated by the Convention on the Future of Europe:
-
would take major and
irreversible steps to convert the EU into a fully fledged
State and would yet further subordinate the nations of
Europe to EU institutions and powers
-
would yet further
diminish the democratic control by and accountability of
EU institutions to the peoples of Europe whilst vastly
reducing the powers of national parliaments
and therefore RESOLVES THAT the Congress
will take all steps open to it to explain and publicise the
true nature and effects of the Constitutional Treaty and will
press for a referendum of the British people on its
ratification.
If Parliament fails to provide a
referendum then a privately-funded referendum of the whole
British electorate should be held, possibly by a postal
vote.
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