A Dubrovnik Treaty

There ought to be a first law of European Union treaty-making: any treaty is pregnant with the possibilities of any further treaties.   The Conservatives understood this when  Brown Labour  sold the pass and reneged on its absolute commitments to hold a referendum on a European Constitutional Treaty; they lied that Lisbon was different.  Without power to stop Lisbon being brought into effect by Brown's regime the Conservatives gave us two effective commitments: the use of our own constitutional powers to determine the extent of Lisbon usages in our own country - the very stumbling blocks to Lisbon that more codified constitutions in other member-states had to have written in, even in a later treaty, and a referendum on any subsequent EU treaties that altered our relationship with the European Union.

The Croatian Accession Treaty  is expected to carry a lot of baggage: all the guarantees to Ireland given  to make the Irish vote Yes at the second attempt last year; all the undertakings to the Czech Republic on the status of the Czech constitution and its powers to intervene as does the German constitution for Germany;  German constitutional statuses themselves; even Labour red-line showboating doesn't compare with what has to be written into this treaty.

Letters from a Tory has pointed-up  the crucial missing piece in the Conservative guarantees that when they are in power there will be no further alterations without a referendum: the occasion that could precipitate the referendum. 

Others have noted that European economic governance would require treaty changes; they have argued that there is no stomach for touching Lisbon after the years of pressing to get the European Constitutional Treaty through.  They are right.  And so are those who assured us that indeed the Lisbon Treaty will not be touched.  The treaty that is carrying all those provisos that won over Germany, the Czech Republic, and Ireland to accept Lisbon will be, though.  It must be, by prior agreement, so very much more than a mere accession treaty for a small European candidate member-state conforming in every way to accession requirements.

Never let a crisis (or a treaty) go to waste.  Greece has been profligate and unwise in its fiscal behaviour (but haven't some others closer to home?  And all in the social democratic,  big state - high tax political-loser camp).  But it has conveniently brought down a high euro to more comfortable levels for manufacturing and exporting member-states, and it has concentrated attention on urgent, treaty-level underpinning to the single European currency necessity.

Angels would prefer the new treaty to be negotiated in Dubrovnik, the so beautiful, former Venetian colony of Ragusa di Dalmazia.  The Zagreb Treaty doesn't have the same ring; it sounds just a touch too close to the realised socialist knuckle.