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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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