BRITAIN:British prime minister Gordon Brown has indicated he will block any further institutional change between the EU and member states, while again ruling out a referendum on the new EU treaty.
As the Labour government published its ratification Bill yesterday, Mr Brown promised MPs they would have the opportunity to examine the legislation "in the fullest detail". At the start of what promises to be a protracted parliamentary battle with the Conservative opposition, Mr Brown also sought to reassure MPs that any subsequent proposal to dilute Britain's EU veto and extend qualified majority voting would require the prior approval of the House of Commons.
Mr Brown, who hopes to revive the Conservative split over Europe, said the new treaty should spell the end of institutional change "for the foreseeable future". He also promised to oppose any further change in the relationship between the EU and member states "not just for this parliament but for the next".
"I stand by that commitment," Mr Brown declared, suggesting that other member states agreed on this issue. Following last week's treaty signing in Lisbon and the EU summit the next day in Brussels, Mr Brown asserted: "Europe is now moving to a new agenda - one that focuses on the changes needed to meet the challenges of the global era."
However, Tory leader David Cameron told Mr Brown he would not "restore trust in British politics" unless he held a referendum, and questioned how he could refuse one "having just signed up to an all-encompassing constitution that transfers powers from Westminster to Brussels."
The Tory leader charged: "It's this sort of approach that makes you look shifty and untrustworthy. Do you not see that far from getting you out of your troubles, denying people a referendum is digging you in deeper?"
Mr Cameron said the treaty "is obviously the [ previously discarded] constitution" and suggested European leaders now also saw Mr Brown "in the same light as the British people" - not as "the strong leader he posed as in July" but rather as "weak, dithering, second-rate".
Acting Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable also pointed up the embarrassment over Mr Brown's late arrival in Lisbon and his separate signing of the treaty, asking if this was "incompetence, discourtesy or dishonesty or a combination of the three".
The whole episode, he said, "reflected badly on Britain as a country and not just on him [ Mr Brown]. The prime minister had missed the official ceremony attended by the other 26 EU leaders, blaming a diary clash with his appearance before a committee of MPs at Westminster.
Foreign secretary David Miliband deputised and Mr Brown signed the treaty three hours later. Downing Street dismissed the issue as a "fuss over nothing".
Mr Brown's government suffered new embarrassment over missing data yesterday when it revealed that one of its contractors had lost the details of three million learner drivers. The revelation came weeks after the government admitted it had lost computer disks containing the names and bank details of 25 million people, exposing almost half the population to possible fraud and identity theft.