(From Full Fact)
“The Prime Minister’s renegotiation deal on the UK’s European Union membership is a package of changes to EU rules. It was agreed by European leaders on 19 February 2016. In this series of articles, some of the country’s leading experts in EU law explain the deal and what it changes.
In brief: The proposed EU deal would exempt the UK from aspiring to “an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe”. This phrase has a symbolic political impact, but has little or no legal effect. Saying that it no longer applies to the UK doesn’t change anything about how the EU works, or the powers it has.
The phrase “ever closer union” is one of the targets for David Cameron’s renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with the EU.
In his statement to the House of Commons on 3 February, Mr Cameron said:
“we do not want to have our country bound up in an ever closer political union in Europe”.
This links “ever closer union” to progress towards a federal or "super-state” Europe.
But a closer look at the use of this term in EU law undermines that idea.
“Ever closer union” isn’t specifically a call for political union
This expression is of long-standing origin.
It is found in the Preamble to the 1957 treaty that set up what became the EU. On at least six occasions the UK has signed up to it (firstly in becoming a member, and then agreeing to subsequent treaty changes).
So for example, one of the main EU treaties currently refers to:
“the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe, in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”.
Notably, the treaties actually say “ever closer union of the peoples” of Europe, not governments. The phrase does not contain the word “political”, and it uses the word “union” with a small u, less suggestive of a formal drive towards a European super-state.
It’s also important to read the phrase “ever closer union” with the rest of the sentence. This links ever closer union, as the original draft of the EU deal stated, with a desire to “…promote trust and understanding among peoples living in open and democratic societies…”.
The “new settlement” deal also spells out that references to ever closer union don’t give the EU any specific “competences”, or powers.
Likewise, the phrase doesn’t require the EU to expand its powers, nor prevent any power from being removed from the EU.
This is important, as it underlines that the phrase has no actual legal bite, and can’t be a springboard for expansive EU action.
The phrase is therefore symbolic.”