All across the EU, political leaders are telling their citizens what the new 'Reform Treaty' is all about. Yet our government are insisting that it is so minor we should not get a chance to have our say on whether we want to sign up to it.

Having read the document, I am convinced that the British people should have their opportunity in a free and fair referendum to say whether or not they want a further transfer of powers from Westminster to Brussels.

Gordon Brown is trumpeting a new 'listening' style of government, and I think this would be the perfect opportunity for him to demonstrate to us, the voters, the people he is supposed to be serving, that his premiership is markedly different from the 'spin and no substance' we have had to tolerate for the last ten years.

However, that would require him to admit that what we are being told by the government, in particular that 'No red lines have been breached' and that the summit resulted in 'Game, set and match for Britain' is not, in reality, what has happened.

To see that, all we have to do is look to European politicians for the truth. And what they are saying is that this is the Constitution without the dreaded c-word. The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, stated quite clearly that “The Fundamentals of the Constitution have been maintained in large part...We have renounced everything that makes people think of a state, like the flag and the national anthem.” She was backed up by her Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who agreed that the mandate approved by the EU will “preserve the substance of the constitutional treaty.”

They are, unlike our own politicians, telling the truth. The new treaty now gives the EU a legal personality, meaning it can make decisions and sign treaties on the world stage as 'The EU', rather than Britain and all the other nation states signing it individually. The plans in the Constitution for the EU to have a single seat on the UN Security Council have also taken a huge leap forward, with an EU High Representative who has an 'automatic right' to speak on behalf of the UK at the Security Council. We have also given away the veto on foreign affairs, which will now be decided by Qualified Majority Voting.

More powerful even, than that, are the plans in the treaty to set out a Common Defence Policy. How long will it be before we have plans calling for an EU army? The ability of a country to defend their borders and interests is vital for any sovereign nation, and to give up control of these elements to an institution which will have a permanent Presidency, and therefore a permanent figurehead, and a new legal personality in its own right it madness by our leaders.

Britain has also lost the ability to block legislation in over 50 new areas, which, we cannot veto decisions which our representatives feel may be detrimental to this country. How can Blair and Brown possibly say that these decisions are in the interest of this country? The arguments for removing vetoes were to stop the EU machine from 'grinding to a halt', but if laws were being halted because they were not in the interests of this country, then the new rules will mean directives being passed without them necessarily being in the best interests of this country, as with so many of the rules passed weekly in the European Union. How is this in any way 'game, set and match' to any of us?

As the headline of Le Monde read, “The symbols have disappeared, but the fundamentals remain.” It is clear to me that the other countries in Europe are at least being told the truth about this treaty, whilst here in the UK we have a government who is denying the real impact of this new document and, fearful of losing the argument, will not let us have our say.

I disagree, and think that our politicians should let the people decide.

Nigel Farage MEP

Leader of the UK Independence Party

26th June 2007