British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday confirmed that he is ready to hold a referendum on an EU constitution but signalled it would not happen for a year or more, probably after the next general election.
"Let the issue be put. Let the battle be joined," Blair told mem-bers of parliament.
PHOTO: AFP
He said the electorate should be asked for their opinion "when all our questions have been answered, when all the details are known, when the legislation has been finally tempered and scrutinized ... and when parliament has debated and decided."
Talks on the EU constitution collapsed at an EU summit last December. But changes of government in Spain and Poland -- two of the major objectors -- have helped revive negotiations.
A number of EU member states plan to hold public votes if an EU constitution is signed and sealed at a summit in June, as seems increasingly likely. A "No" vote in any one of them would hold up, or possibly even scupper the charter.
Officials said that even if a deal were struck, parliamentary scrutiny would not start until late this year and would take several months. Blair is expected to call a general election in or around May next year.
He said he would sign up to a constitution provided it respected Britain's "red lines." He has pledged to keep unilateral British control of areas like taxation, defense and foreign policy.
"Provided the treaty embodies the essential British positions we shall agree to it," he said.
Blair said he would use a referendum campaign to challenge EU myths put about by his Conservative opponents and Britain's eurosceptic media.
It was time for Britain to decide if it wanted be a "leading partner" of Europe or relegated to its margins.
"Let the eurosceptics whose true agenda we will expose, make their case. Let those of us who believe in Britain in Europe ... make ours," he said.
Until now, he has said the constitution posed no threat to British control of vital policy areas and therefore required no public vote.
With polls showing sceptical Britons could well reject a charter, likely to be agreed by EU leaders in June, the pro-European Blair is taking a big gamble. But pressure has intensified to give the public a say.
"I think this is indeed a government on the run," Conservative Party leader Michael Howard said.
He, whose party opposes any constitution as an attack on British sovereignty, said a U-turn would further dent Blair's trust among the public, which has slumped over war in Iraq.
"He has been declaring to the whole world that we are not going to have a referendum, so people are going to wonder to what extent they can trust him when he says anything else," Howard said.
Blair opting for a referendum will increase pressure on other major EU countries to follow suit.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number