Will a vote to Leave mean good-bye or au-revoir?
Exhausted officials may be rejoicing that Brexit is finally off the institutional menu this week but the consequences of a potential British departure are still dominating the corridor talk in Brussels. One matter at least seems to be resolved – a vote to leave will be a definitive good-bye and not a lingering au-revoir. The possibility of a second referendum and a “better” deal following a leave vote was firmly put to bed by both Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, and Nigel Farage, who found himself in the awkward position of agreeing with David Cameron’s Boris put-down “that you don’t file for divorce in order to renew your vows.”
Farage was put on the spot in the European Parliament’s (EP) debate on the deal when asked by a mischievous Italian MEP if he would call it a day and retire from politics if the UK voted to remain, or would he want to stay here, “enjoying the company of us Europeans?”. Nigel blustered back that he was confident that all 73 British MEPs would be gone soon – but left his own fate tantalisingly hanging in the air.
The plenary debate was also marked by the announcement from Ashley Fox, leader of the Tory delegation in the EP, that he would campaign to remain in the EU. He welcomed the deal reached by the leaders “fuelled by packets of Haribo and sealed following a visit to the chip shop”, in reference to the 23 packet of sweets that fortified David Cameron during the marathon talks and Angela Merkel’s well-publicized trip to the local friterie. Fox was less forthcoming when it came to answering how many of his Tory colleagues would join him on the remain campaign and it looks as if he can only count on half of them.
Dieselgate committee must not become a witch hunt
The committee of inquiry has proved a godsend to MEPs starved of legislative proposals. The TAXE committee, set up to look into the Luxleaks scandal, succeeded in cajoling a dozen large multinationals to send their top tax experts to give evidence. At last MEPs felt like they were a House of Commons Select Committee, summoning and grilling whoever they pleased.
Now it’s the turn of Dieselgate and a new inquiry committee looking into who knew what and when about defeat devices and why was it left to the Americans to uncover Volkswagen’s deceit? The centre-right are desperate that this does not turn into a witch hunt against the car industry and diesel technology, where they argue that Europe still leads the world. They fought for weeks against the Socialists getting hold of the Chairmanship but to no avail and the Flemish Socialist Kathleen Van Brempt will lead the investigation. Given that anything connected to the EU is reduced to an acronym, the new committee is known as EMIS, but the wags are already referring to it as SALEM.