Defiant ... PM at the Lisbon talks
They are taking us for fools
By GEORGE PASCOE-WATSON
Political Editor
GORDON Brown has been accused of treating us like fools.
It’s worse than that. They really DO think we’re stupid.
Never have so many porkies been told by government ministers than over this EU treaty.
French and Dutch voters overwhelmingly rejected the EU constitution two years ago.
So EU leaders did what they promised not to — they mounted a giant con-trick by rewriting it under a different title. That’s why we need a referendum.
Foreign Secretary David Miliband can trot out the same rubbish about the constitution being dumped until he’s blue in the face. But it’s nonsense.
Ministers would command more respect if they had the guts to be honest about this treaty.
Other EU leaders are happy to admit that it means a pretty seismic handover of power.
And that makes sense.
If you want a United States of Europe, you need members to pool power otherwise nothing would get done.
There’s only one reason to deny it — if you have something to hide.
'90% same' as dumped Constitution
HERE we set out the reasons other EU leaders insist the Treaty is virtually the same as the Constitution.
Ireland’s Bertie Ahern IS holding a national vote because he agrees it is 90 per cent the same.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel says the fundamentals “have been maintained in large part”, while Finland’s Europe Minister Astrid Thors says nothing has altered.
And last week the European Scrutiny Committee forecast that Gordon Brown’s ‘red lines’ will “leak like a sieve”.
MPs predict the European Court of Justice will start to make laws for
Britain based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
One red line — on tax and social security — is said to be totally bogus.
The EU will also have power under a ‘ratchet’ clause to dictate to future British governments.
The European Commission will be able able to impose new laws on all nations if a majority of member states agree.
The Treaty will force Britain to surrender extra oil reserves to EU states in emergencies — costing us an estimated £6billion.
Brown dines at the last supper
GORDON Brown last night surrendered centuries of British power to Brussels in a “last supper” washed down with fine wine.
The PM has refused to give the British people a say in a referendum on the EU Treaty even though it is 96 per cent the same as the dumped constitution.
He casually tossed away our veto in 61 areas of law-making over a meal of grilled sole and chocolate cake accompanied by fine wines during historic talks in Lisbon, Portugal.
Mr Brown will sign the completed document in December before using his majority to force it through the Commons next Spring.
There was a delay in the talks as Italy and Poland dug their heels in as they battled for more rights.
But late last night the two nations were granted last-minute concessions.
EU leaders still had to clear one hurdle over appointing a new, more powerful European foreign policy chief.
But the agreement was all but done.
Mr Brown insisted once more yesterday that there will be NO referendum over the Treaty for the British people.
And he again insisted that the constitution — dumped two years ago by France and Holland — was NOT the same as the new Treaty.
Yet a string of other EU leaders have confirmed it IS the same — and carries 96 per cent of the measures in the original constitution.
And today Mr Brown's own backbencher, Labour MP Kate Hoey, agreed that the treaty agreed by EU leaders at the Lisbon summit WAS virtually the same as the abandoned constitution which the Government had promised to put to the country in a referendum.
She told BBC Radio 4's the World at one: “If he (Mr Brown) is so pleased with this agreement and if it is so wonderful, then the people of this country should have the right to decide because it is certainly 99% the same as what was agreed."
Mr Brown insisted he has won a string of ‘red lines’ guaranteeing Britain control over foreign and security matters, tax, and law and order.
He said hours before agreeing to the Treaty: “The British national interest is protected. This issue should now go before Parliament for a very detailed debate. All the protections built in mean Britain still decides on major issues.”
Strawberries
Mr Brown joined the heads of 26 other EU states for yesterday’s talks.
They dined on vegetable crêpes, grilled sole with saffron rice, chocolate cake and strawberries — all washed down with local Cartuxa wine.
Nothing was signed or initialled by the leaders — that will happen at a formal ceremony in December.
The Treaty will be the first concrete step towards a United States of Europe — complete with a permanent President.
A new foreign minister will replace Britain’s elected Foreign Secretary at some key international summits.
And we will be FORCED to surrender our seat at the UN Security Council if the EU has an agreed position on a global issue.
Our veto in 61 areas will go — making it impossible for us to block unwanted EU dictats.
And Britain’s ability to make deals with other EU states to stop Commission laws will be massively watered down.
Mr Brown insisted Britain’s national interest will be protected because four red lines will guarantee sovereignty in key areas. They protect us from EU laws on crime-fighting, tax and social security rules, workplace legislation and union rights and foreign affairs.
But the PM bluntly ignored warnings from his own Labour MPs on a Commons committee which last week said the red lines are meaningless.
They warned the Charter of Fundamental Rights opposed by Mr Brown will simply be imposed on us in future years by the European Court of Justice.
The opt-out from EU justice and home affairs laws is actually an opt-IN.
And if we agree to a new power in this area we will be locked in for good — even if the details of the measures change in a way we don’t want.
Shop-floor laws will also be forced on us after EU trade union leaders agreed to adopt a ‘social model’ giving workers more rights and saddling firms with costly red tape.
The treaty was drawn up to help the 27 European Union members work more efficiently.
Other EU countries happily admit it means pooling some of their powers to get the organisation to agree new laws. But Mr Brown and his ministers have repeatedly claimed there are NO drawbacks to the deal — and they insist Britain is coming out of it well.
The PM made it clear last night he now wants to take on his critics in the House when he tries to ram the Treaty through Parliament next Spring.
It is due to become law in the UK on January 1, 2009.
Mr Brown raised the prospect of bitter Maastricht-style Commons battles over the Treaty next year. The Maastricht agreement helped tear the Tories apart under John Major in 1992.
Referendum
Conservative leader David Cameron has already promised a referendum on the Treaty if he wins power.
Mandate ... Hague
Last night the Tories unveiled a new poster campaign saying: ‘Who has a say on the EU Treaty? Not you. Just Gordon’.
Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said: “Gordon Brown cannot walk away from his manifesto promise of a referendum.
“He has absolutely no democratic mandate to agree to this Treaty. It is not just his decision — the final say must belong to the British people.” An astonishing total of 128,000 Sun readers have demanded a referendum on the rejigged EU Constitution.
Almost 84,000 called our phone poll, while 24,000 signed our online petition and 20,000 sent in coupons.
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A SECOND village has won the right to vote for a national referendum on the Treaty, it emerged yesterday.
Locals in 5,000-strong Crigglestone, West Yorks, collected ten signatures allowing them to press Gordon Brown to stage a poll under the 1972 Local Government Act.
Another village, East Stoke in Dorset, decided by 90 per cent last month that they wanted the nation to have a vote on the new legislation.
