The Code Napoleon

Brussels proposes that national governments will no longer have the full sovereign right to decide what constitutes a crime and what the punishment should be.

A draft paper to be introduced on Thursday (8 January) which has been seen by EUobserver calls for "more dissuasive sanctions for environmentally harmful activities, which typically cause or are likely to cause substantial damage to the air, soil, water, animals or plants".

In this week's piece of legislation, to be introduced by commissioners Franco Frattini (justice and home affairs) and Stavros Dimas (environment), the European Commission argues that environment protection should be adressed through action at EU level.

Is there anybody reading this old enough to remember:

"The house as a whole may therefore be reassured that there is no question of this bill (The European Communities Bill 1972) making a thousand years of British law subservient to the Code Napoleon".
Mr. Geoffrey Rippon, Hansard, 15 Feb 1972. Pg.270.

"Our sovereignty cannot be bartered away by the Solicitor General, or even by the Prime Minister, because it is not theirs to give. I speak not only of the sovereignty of this house, but also of the higher sovereignty of the British people".
Mr Alfred Morris MP. Hansard, 17 Feb 1972 Pg. 727-8.

"There are some in this country who fear that in going into Europe we shall in some way sacrifice independence and sovereignty. These fears, I need hardly say, are completely unjustified."
Prime Minister Edward Heath, television broadcast on Britain's entry into the Common Market, January 1973.
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