Tradition

Meeting of the European Council in Brussels (21 & 22 June 2007) (picture Council of the European Union)

The BBC news online report on the summit in Brussels reports this:

“The inter-governmental conference is the body that is charged with drafting the EU’s reform treaties, traditionally created with the unanimous agreement of member states.”

Untrue. An IGC can be called by a majority of member states, and the IGC that led to the Single European Act was created by a majority vote (9 votes to 3) against the opposition of the UK, Denmark, and Greece.

There is no such tradition. Member state governments that luxuriate in the idea that they have a veto over the future of Europe need a reality check. And the BBC ought to publish facts, not government propaganda.

I have sent in a complaint. The reply came back:

“Comments about our stories or services will be passed on to the appropriate editor. Factual or spelling errors will be corrected.”

We will see.

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As at 24 September 2010 (when I checked during the move to the new website format) , the page had not been updated and was still inaccurate.

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