Tories guilty of short-term thinking

AnYOnE remember subsidiarity? The idea was much debated in the 1990s when John Major was having trouble persuading his recalcitrant back-benchers to support the Maastricht Treaty, signed in 1993. To assuage fears over European Union power, the principle of subsidiarity – that action should be taken at national level, unless there were compelling reasons for the EU to act – was adopted.

Then came the Lisbon Treaty of 2009. In it contained a “yellow card” system allowing national parliaments to object to EU proposals if they believed they did not comply with subsidiarity.

So to the present day when another Tory Prime Minister is having trouble persuading his recalcitrant back-benchers not just of the benefits of Europe but of the idea of the UK being in the EU at all. So, up pops Foreign Secretary William Hague to suggest a “red card” system to “give national parliaments the right to block legislation that need not be agreed at the European level”. The EU has great benefits. It can help to crack down on multinational corporate tax evasion, for example. But it often appears to poke its bureaucratic nose into aspects of our national life in which it has no business.

So, Mr Hague’s suggestion has merit. The problem is the Tory part of the coalition, with its militant anti-EU MPs and its move to the right to cope with the rise of Ukip, has little credibility in Europe. The chances of the red card system being adopted are, therefore, slim. It is Mr Hague and Mr Cameron that should be shown the yellow card – a warning that trimming for short-term domestic political ends is not the way to win friends and influence governments in Europe.