Sovereignty

... ons on the sovereignty of the British Parliament. EU law is binding on all members, and the UK is a member 'in perpetuity', which therefore means that EU law takes precedence over UK law. This principle could breach the sovereignty of the UK, as sovereignty is 'autonomy or freedom from all external control', as more decisions are being made in Brussels than in Westminster. An example of EU law overpowering UK law could be the Factortame case, where Britain passed the Merchant Fishing Act 1988 which disallowed Spanish vessels to fish in British Waters. The European Court of Justice ruled that Britain breached EU law by suspending an Act and so overpowered UK law, and the Spanish fishing companies claimed for compensation for loss of profits during the 18 months they were unable to fish. Therefore the question of what sovereignty does an EU member yield is posed; what are the EU's ultimate powers? Can a historical nation really give up its sovereignty to an assembly of states without democratic legitimacy of its own? Membership of the EU binds a state to the principles of democratic government and to respect for human rights, although the case where the EU Court of Justice prevented Austrians to vote for a party with a program calling for grater limits on immigration breaches this. Sovereignty is a major political current in France also, where defence of national sovereignty against the centralising 'federalist' version of EU has produced a new major political party claiming to represent the Gaullist heritage. The same current exists on the French left, where it is led by the interior minister of the present Socialist - led government. Also, the Scandinavian members of the EU are not in favour of more integration, similar to the Conservative Party in the UK.

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