PORTUGAL: UK's Prime Minister Gordon Brown says no to referendum on EU treaty and will fight for red lines

Britain will not put the EU treaty to a referendum because it is an amending treaty not a new constitution. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown makes this announcement on the day a British newspaper publishes a poll saying that the majority of Britons would want a referendum. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would not put a European Union treaty to a referendum despite a poll published on Thursday (October 18) that said that the majority of Britons would want one. Speaking before the meeting of EU leaders at the Lisbon summit Brown said the treaty would be an amending treaty and not a constitution thefore parliament would have to decide for Britain. He said what was important at this meeting was to ensure that Britain had control over justice and home affairs issues, security and the charter of rights. These red lines would be fought at the Lisbon meeting. "People will see that we have secured our red lines and that the British national interest is protected. Why then do I say that this should now go to parliament for very detailed discussion by members of parliament: it is no longer a constitutional treaty, it is an amending treaty. In the first words of the Brussels declaration, the constitutional concept it states it is abandoned and in these circumstances I believe that just as we might have had a discussion about the euro that would have led to a referendum because that is a fundamental change and just as if it was the old treaty there would have been a referendum because that was a fundamental change, because we have a very different document with our protocols, with our opt ins, with our emergency breaks, with all these protections for the British national interest there is no fundamental change," Brown said. He also said it was crucial to come to an agreement in order to build a Europe that works. "Fifty percent of our trade is with Europe. Anybody who is looking at the prosperity of the British economy knows that millions of jobs depend on us having successful trading arrangements with the rest of Europe andit makes sense therefore to have a European Union that is organised for the 27 members it has and that the institutional arrangements suit them. And that is the purpose of the reformed treaty," Brown said. Agreement on the treaty would end a crisis of confidence sparked by Dutch and French voters' rejection of a European constitution in 2005 and open the way for a toned-down treaty that includes a foreign policy chief with more clout and a long-term EU president. German Chancellor Angela Merkel brokered a political mandate for the treaty in June despite dogged Polish resistance. She said at she was cautiously optimistic but expected the negotiations to be difficult.

ITN Source | October 19, 2007

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