Gavin Hewitt
Gavin Hewitt’s Europe
BBC News
6 October 2010
Tory supporters who are wary of Brussels have had lean pickings from the coalition government so far.
Today the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, promised them that the sovereignty of the British Parliament would be placed on the statute book for the first time. He told the Conservative Party conference that the clause on EU Law would underline “this eternal truth: what a sovereign parliament can do, a sovereign parliament can also undo”.
On one level this changes very little. The existing relationship between British and European law will not be altered. What it will make clear is that EU directives only take effect by the will of Parliament.
The principle of parliamentary sovereignty is currently rooted in common law. The intention of the new legislation is to put beyond speculation where ultimate sovereignty lies…
…”This is not about Westminster striking down individual items of EU legislation,” [David Cameron] said [in November 2009]. “It is about an assurance that the final word on our laws is here in Britain.”…
Read this complete article at BBC.
