BRITAIN: British Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw has backed calls for a written constitution for the EU as a protection for nation-states against the encroachments of the European Commission.
The Conservatives immediately accused Mr Straw of selling out British interests and of "caving in" to Labour advocates of a European superstate. However Mr Straw dismissed this. He insisted the provision of a "basic rulebook" for the operation of an enlarging European Union would ensure the EU was governed for the communities of Europe and not for its political elites.
The Foreign Secretary used his speech to business leaders in Edinburgh, and a subsequent visit to Belfast, to underline the British government's belief that its approach to devolution within the UK offered a template by which European leaders could arrest the growing sense of public alienation from EU institutions by making them more accountable.
Mr Straw called for a "subsidiarity watchdog" made up of MPs from the different member-states to ensure the European Commission did not take powers from national or regional bodies. This body would "help Europeans hack their way through the undergrowth of local, national and supranational jurisdiction and ensure that decisions were taken at the most effective level."
Speaking at the start of a UK-wide tour designed to showcase the benefits of Britain's EU membership while promoting his case for reform of its institutions, Mr Straw said: "Part of the problem with Europe at the moment is that you can't turn to a single document and see all these set out in a basic framework with the law for those institutions."
Some Conservatives argued such a move would represent the first attempt since Napoleon to give a set of laws Europe-wide application. However Mr Straw told the BBC Britain had already signed up to a body of supranational laws when it originally entered the Common Market in 1973.
Mr Straw's speech was widely seen at Westminster as a significant development of the government's thinking as the EU's convention prepares for enlargement by up to 10 new member-states by 2004.