Creeping European Union

British police and other law enforcement agencies will now have access to the Schengen Information System, an EU-wide computer database monitoring `undesirables'. Under the 1985 Schengen pact EU states must abolish their borders and harmonise immigration law by adhering to the 142 articles of the accord.

Speaking at the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels, the Home Secretary, Jack Straw said that there were "clear benefits" from Britain's admission to parts of Schengen: "The conclusions of the Tampere Council last October showed that the UK can play a leading role in Europe and in particular in the Crime and Justice agenda.

"We initiated measures that will lead to a European Police College, a Task Force of European Police Chiefs, mutual recognition of judicial decisions," he said.

Britain has opted out of sections of the agreement that would remove frontier controls. Mr Straw also signed an agreement with France to crack down on illegal immigrants using the cross-channel Eurostar train. Under the deal, British officials will be able to check the papers of passengers heading for Britain who board the Eurostar in France.

Similar arrangements are already in place with Belgium, but legal technicalities meant a new agreement had to be struck with France.

Despite the fact Britain has not been a full member of Schengen it has introduced similar legislation, including all the Asylum and Immigration Acts since 1996, which include restrictions on the freedom of movement, the withholding of work permits and the introduction of a voucher system.

Brussels temporarily suspended the Schengen agreement between France and Spain last year to block Basque nationalists travelling from Spain to southern France to join a protest there.

Tax Harmonisation
The latest attack on the rights of EU states to decide their own economic policy was endorsed by the Commission on May 24.

The commission report on public finances sets out guidelines for an EU-wide economic policy, including for member states not in the struggling single currency.

This involves further demands for budget deficit cuts and mass privatisation to be the overriding priority for national governments.

High-debt member states, like Belguim and Italy, have been particularly singled out and told to slash public spending to keep on track with existing EU goals.

The Commission also told Rome not to delay planned pension cuts and introduce private pensions by 2001."In the absence of corrective measures, ageing populations could put strong pressure on the budget deficit," said the Commission in the report.

"The required changes, which should include further steps to promote funded pensions provision, would allow a broader overhaul of the Italian welfare system," it added.

Low government deficits, public borrowing and inflation were all stipulations in the Treaty on European Union (Maastricht). Brussels has long demanded that all member states stick to these criteria which has led to the introduction in Britain of PFI to fund the welfare and education services ie hand it all over to the private sector.

Economic Affairs commissioner Pedro Solbes also ordered all 15 treasuries to only consider tax cuts where they are matched by public spending cuts "to get the balance right between further tax reforms and deficit reductions." Otherwise known as tax harmonisation by stealth.

The commission demanded the latest criteria must be applied when capital's assessing national budget plans for 2001.

Predictably, the Treasury in London denied any suggestions that Brussels was delivering economic policy lectures and setting down binding rules.

"The fact that we have agreed with the criteria that they will use does not mean that we have subcontracted the budget to Europe," it said. However, the treasury declined to answer what happens when such opinions diverge.