Basic HTML Version
PAGE 14
PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPORT,
DECEMBER
2 ,
1986
Perhaps overlooked in this "logical. process is the fact that additional
power naturally accrues to EC institutions. Whenever the EC rules on
matters, its law is supreme. In these areas, thereforer the EC
is
sovereign, above the national parliaments. (Sovereignty is generally
described as the right to make and enforce one's own laws.) Moreover,
the EC countries approving the Single European Act--and
it
is likely
a l l
will, since few if any seem willing to
be
left on the outside looking in
this late in the game--must go along with subsequent legislation whether
they like it
or
not, providing a qualified majority of members do so.
Each member state is allotted a quota of votes. The total for all 12
states
is
76.
A majority
of
54
carries an issue. The
U.K.
has only ten
votes. (Apparently, from what I've seen, the roughly-equal-in-size
big
powers such as the
U.K.,
France, West Germany and Italy each have ten
votes, the smallet states fewer. The Irish Republic, for one, is
allocated only three.) Even Britain plus one of the other
big
states
cannot stop legislation from being passed.
In the House
of
Lords, Lord Denning, the most outspoken opponent of the
Single European Act, did his best
to
argue against the enabling bill.
But in the end, her too, resigned himself
to
the inevitable. He felt
compelled to inform the British public, in
a
November
3
TIMES of London
article entitled .Farewell. to Our Sovereignty,. what this momentous
decision means for the British people:
For nearly
300
years our constitutional law has been based on
the principle that Parliament was our supreme legislative
authority. It alone could make, unmake
or
amend our laws.
That soverei nt has now been ended. Its overthrow will be
Gle-arxmex
i t s e l m a y when it passes the
European Communities (Amendment) Bill.... This [action1
...
creates a new legal order in international law; and also in
our constitutional law, Parliamentary sovereignty has gone.
It
has been replaced by Community sovereignty. Take two
recent decisions of the European Court of Justice.
The first was about rubber inflatable dolls
[a
male sex-
fantasy item]. They had been manufactured and sold freely in
West Germany, When they were imported into Heathrow, customs
officers condemned them as 'indecent or obscene" and seized
them. The European Court held that the section of our act
governing indecency and obscenity was no longer valid because
it offended against the fundamental principle of the Common
Market that goods lawfully marketed in one member-state must
be allowed free entry into other states.... [We omit, for lack
of space, the second example.]
So
we have
to
reckon with a new constitutional principle.
Community law, as declared
2
the European CouFt, is su erior
-
over
any
--
a x o f i u r Parliament-at
--
is inconsistti+ w&
--
Our courts must follow its rulings: a n i l l m e n t must
enact whatever legislation is necessary to make our law
conform..,. Even our influence over Community legislation
receives
a
severe setback. Previously most decisions had to
be unanimous. But now, in the Single European Act, they can
be made
by
a
.qualified majority'....