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Gordon Brown in EU treaty
warning
Toby Helm
London
Telegraph
Wednesday September 5, 2007
Gordon Brown has issued a warning to the leaders of France and
Germany that he will have to call a referendum on the new EU treaty
if they force Britain to cede more powers to Brussels.
The Prime Minister revealed that he had told Angela Merkel, the
German chancellor, and Nikolas Sarkozy, the French president,
that he will use the "nuclear option" of a national
vote if they try to force his arm in final negotiations next month.
Mr Brown knows the warning will have carried weight because the
likely result - a No vote from the British people - would throw
the European project into turmoil.
Speaking during his regular press conference in Downing Street,
Mr Brown, who is under pressure to grant a referendum, said: "I
have already made it clear to Chancellor Merkel, who was chair of
the discussions, to President Sarkozy and others that our red lines
have got to be adhered to in the detail of the inter-governmental
conference.
"If I were to come to the conclusion that we were not having
the detail of what was decided reflected in the final outcome
of the declaration, then of course I would come back to the British
people and say 'look we have to do things differently'."
(Article continues below)
Mr Brown has refused to grant British people a vote on the treaty
because he argues that it is fundamentally different to the defunct
constitutional treaty on which Labour promised, in its 2005 election
manifesto, to give the people a say.
The Prime Minister insists that the "constitutional elements"
of the treaty have been stripped out and that he and Tony Blair
have ensured British sovereignty over foreign, social security
and justice and home affairs policy will remain intact.
However, Mr Brown is facing criticism from all sides. Many of
his fellow EU leaders and European diplomats are furious that
the British exemptions undermine the cause of European integration
- and want guarantees that they must not set precedents for other
member states to stall the cause of European unity.
Meanwhile, dozens of Labour MPs have joined the Tory party to
demand a referendum, arguing that the old treaty is substantially
the same as the treaty on which a referendum was promised.
Yesterday the number of people signing up to The Daily Telegraph's
"let the people decide" petition in favour of a referendum
reached 82,425.
The final treaty wording will be agreed at a summit to be attended
by Mr Brown and leaders of the other 26 EU member states in Lisbon
next month.
Mr Brown added: "If we were debating now the old constitutional
treaty - which as the Brussels declaration says has been abandoned
and certainly has been abandoned as far as Britain is concerned
- then the argument for a referendum would be strong.
"But I have said before we started these negotiations in
the last week in Brussels, that if we secured our red lines then
there would be no need for a referendum."
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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