Apart from the Budget shock - keeping up the tradition of giveaways in the quiet period just before Christmas, many will have been lulled into thinking that the Presidency was 'uneventful'.

They could not be more wrong.

• Air-traffic and airline safety
• Biotechnology (where the UK is a leading player)
• Defence
• Educational Research
• 'Common Energy Policy'
• Immigration policy (e.g. all non-Europeans who complete a PhD in Europe will automatically be given EU citizenship)
• Law and order
• Nuclear energy
• Space / 'spy satellites'
• 'Tax co-ordination'.

Browne cannot be considered an 'arch-sceptic', as he believes in 'pooling sovereignty' (sic) in some areas. For him, what has been happening has been too much. He felt that the government should at least 'openly debate' the powers being given away to the EU

Home Secretary Charles Clarke warned MEPs that a failure to act on terrorism, security and immigration issues would damage the EU's standing among citizens. (The Register website, 13.7.05)

He told the parliament that French and Dutch referendum rejections of the EU constitution were, in part, due to citizens fearful of terrorism and immigration. "I am absolutely certain that some of those results were because we are not doing enough in these areas" he said.

The UK was echoing the same line as Commission Vice-President Frattini:
"... security is, in the Commission's view, the appropriate response to build the new consensus for Europe."

European Commission President Barroso arrogantly claimed: "The fight against terrorism is at the top of issues where citizens wish a stronger European dimension."

NPOs might have to ensure that no funds are spent on 'terrorist' purposes or 'other criminal abuses' - but of course it won't involve 'bureaucracy' !!!

'EU grants' might be made available to complying NPOs - however the fact that strings are currently attached to grants might ensure that they are prevented from saying anything that gives the EU a bad name or working against the EU's interests. (document refs: COM(2005) 620 final, 13851/03/rev4).

Never mind the EU's record on grants to groups like the Palestinian Authority, which have seen demands for investigation... not to mention the EU's leaky accounts where billions remain unaccounted for, year after year.....

We uncovered a UK Presidency blueprint for a 'European Criminal Intelligence Model', 'intelligence-led policing' - with Europol centrally storing and analysing data, which would 'increase the effectiveness of Europol and other EU bodies. Although e-Borders seems a UK initiative, Privacy International (4.7.05) notes links to the 'European Council Declaration on Combating Terrorism' and Directives. The Home Office is looking at charging passengers fees to cover its costs.

  The Charter of Fundamental Rights was part of the rejected EU Constitution. However Document COM(2005) 172 effectively insists that its provisions must be reflected in all new EU legislation. It insists upon: "... a methodology for ensuring that the charter is properly implemented in Commission proposals." (S. Telegraph, 16.10.05)

 Deputy PM John Prescott held a Bristol Presidency meeting on 'sustainable communities'. His 'European Evidence Review' document (6.12.05) sanctimoniously claimed that it was 'important' to protect 'valued natural areas'. However, the house-building blitz favoured by his regional bodies has been condemned as 'unsustainable'.

  An end-of-Presidency report shows various moves to whitewash the EU ('Plan-D', Europe Direct; see also document 15576/05). The terms of grants to promotional organisations bar any initiative that is "directly or indirectly contrary to EU policy", so don't bank on both sides of the story being told.

This page updated: 1 January 2006