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Proceeding contribution from Lord Leach of Fairford (Conservative) in the House of Lords on Tuesday, 20 May 2008. It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL) and Debate on bill on European Union (Amendment) Bill.

European Union (Amendment) Bill

I was referring to the Maastricht referendum in Denmark. An enterprising Danish academic asked 10 questions to a random sample of Danish voters and of Danish MPs—a very well informed bunch, you would have thought. They were not very demanding questions—ones such as ““Who is the EU president?”” and ““Which country holds the presidency?””. The voters got more answers right than the MPs. An internal Eurobarometer study confirmed that result. It showed that citizens in those countries that have held referendums on European integration know nearly twice as much about Europe as citizens in the other countries. One of the countries that came up surprisingly well was Switzerland, which of course is not even in the EU.

Secondary information

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
701 c1379 
Session
2007-08
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Subjects
Constitutional and administrative law EU law European Union European communities Economic and monetary union Referendums Parliamentary scrutiny Sovereignty Treaty of Lisbon
Legislation
European Union (Amendment) Bill 2007-08
Link
View this Proceeding contribution on www.publications.parliament.uk