Brussels, 13/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Ninety-five British Conservative MEPs (of the 225 MPs in the Tory party) wrote a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron this weekend, calling for the House of Commons of the British Parliament to be able to veto any new European legislation in the future, according to the Sunday Telegraph. "We would like you to re-establish a national veto over current and future EU laws", the 95 MPs right. This veto, which would require the British MPs to adopt a law, would "enable Parliament to disapply EU legislation, where it is in our vital national interests to do so", they add.
Downing Street has reacted to the letter and given reassurances that the Prime Minister would look into the idea very closely, but needed to know what this would mean on a practical level. However, a spokesperson to Mr Cameron continued, "if national parliaments regularly and unilaterally rejected European laws, the single market would stop working", AFP reports.
The Conservative group of the EP agrees. "If the national parliaments of all four corners of the EU were able regularly and unilaterally to choose which parts of the legislation they applied and which they did not, then the single market would not be able to function", a Conservative party spokesperson confirmed. "This would not even work in the framework of a free-trade agreement of the kind Switzerland has in place with the EU".
However, the party adds, "our current relationship with Europe is not working and needs to change". In that sense, the ECR party supports Mr Cameron, who intends to hold a referendum in 2017 to redefine relations with the EU if he is re-elected. He proposes to bring in a "red card" system for the national parliaments which, above a certain number, could prevent legislation from being applied. (SP/transl.fl)