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Sterling and the Euro
Eurotreaties Summary on Sterling Sterling: the most stable of all the major currencies Sterling's alleged "volatility" is often invoked as a reason for the UK to replace sterling by a currency which is assumed - wrongly - to be less volatile, the Euro.
Text of the draft Spinelli Treaty
The Spinelli Treaty is arguably one of the most influential documents concerned with the development of the European Union.
It was drafted in 1984 and was presented to the European Parliament, where it was overwhelmingly passed on 14 February 1984, by 237 votes for, 32 against and 34 abstentions.
The provisions of the Spinelli Treaty which have been included in the EU Treaties mainly concern:
the creation of the European Union;
Union citizenship;
the principle of subsidiarity;
the institutionalisation of the European Council;
the investiture of the Commission by the European Parliament;
the principle of EP/Council legislative co-decision;
co-operation in justice and home affairs;
co-operation regarding foreign and security policy;
the European monetary system;
social, health, environment, consumer, culture, and development aid policies;
and the multi-annual programming of expenditure.
The main provisions which had not been included concern:
revision of the Treaty through EP/Council co-decision;
abolition of unanimity in Council (Article 23 of the Spinelli Treaty provided for abolition of the veto within ten years);
the designation of Commission members by the Commission President;
the composition of the Union Council by ministers entrusted with the Union’s affairs;
the suspension of the rights of Member States in the event of serious and permanent violation of the Treaty provisions (this is partially covered by Article 7TEU);
The Union's shared competence in the area of Energy;
financial autonomy of the Union, a system of financial equalisation in order to attenuate the excessive imbalance between regions (e.g. of the kind existing in federal States such as Germany) and the abolition of the differentiation between compulsory spending (on which the EP does not have the last word) and non-compulsory expenditure;
and the introduction of the hierarchy of standards (basic law, laws, budgetary laws, regulations and decisions).
It is very noticeable that most of these have now been introduced by the Draft Treaty establishing the Constitution, in particular, the shared competence in energy (Article I-13), the hierarchy of laws (Article I-32)and the continuing process of the introduction of co-decision (now termed the ordinary legislative procedure in the Constitution).
The full text of the draft "Spinelli" Treaty is shown on the following pages.
 Text of the Spinelli Draft Treaty
Text of the UK European Communities Act
The full text of the UK European Communities Act 1972 is shown on the following pages.
This includes all of the amendments to the 1972 Act introduced by the subsequent Acts, including the European Communities (Amendment) Act 2002, incorporating the Treaty of Nice.
Text of the UK European Communities Act 1972
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