PM told French President he will order referendum if plans to give Brussels sweeping new powers approved

By Jason Groves
PUBLISHED: 00:55, 14 September 2012
UPDATED: 00:55, 14 September 2012


European Commission, Brussels: The President Jose Manuel Barroso called this week for a new treaty to create a 'federation of nation states' by 2014

David Cameron has privately warned EU leaders he will call a referendum in Britain if they press ahead with plans to create a ‘federal Europe’.

Diplomatic sources in Paris yesterday said the Prime Minister has privately warned French President Francois Hollande that he will order a referendum if plans to give Brussels sweeping new powers are approved.

He is thought to have repeated the warning to other EU leaders.

With European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso calling this week for a new treaty to create a ‘federation of nation states’ by 2014, the Prime Minister’s stance suggests the Coalition could be plunged into a referendum debate before the next election.

Government lawyers are reported to have already started work on how to deal with a referendum on a ‘recommendation that Britain stays in the EU without a political union’.

Tory sources last night said Mr Cameron was planning to make a ‘significant’ speech on Europe in the coming months to address the growing move towards federalism.

Respected French newspaper Liberation reported that Mr Cameron had raised the issue with Mr Hollande when the French President visited London in July.

A French diplomat said the Prime Minister had warned that he could only win a referendum if the EU agreed a fundamental renegotiation of the treaties, with some powers coming back to Britain.

‘Cameron told us that if we modified the European treaties, he would have to call a referendum,’ the diplomat said. ‘In order that he could win it, and for his country to stay in the EU, a simple opt-out that allowed the eurozone to continue to integrate would not suffice.

We must therefore rethink the EU from now on - find new equilibrium, starting from the principle that not everyone in a Europe of 30 or 35 will do the same thing.’

Tory MP Chris Heaton-Harris said the Government’s co-called ‘referendum lock made a referendum ‘inevitable’ if Brussels decides to press ahead with a major new EU treaty. The legislation, introduced by the Coalition, requires the Government to call a referendum before significant new powers can be handed to Brussels.

Mr Heaton-Harris, a former MEP, said ministers should immediately begin drawing up a package of demands, including the repatriation of powers from the EU.

He said: ‘A new treaty of the type that Barroso, Hollande and, indeed, Merkel are talking about would without doubt trigger the referendum lock that has now been put into law in this country.

‘This has been coming down the track now for two or three years - it has been obvious that the eurozone was going to move towards political and fiscal union. It is now clear that it is coming faster than people thought.

‘We have a referendum lock and it is inevitable that this will trigger a referendum, so now is the time when we should be examining our relationship with Europe and preparing properly for what will be quite a dramatic renegotiation.’

Fellow Conservative George Eustice, founder of a Eurosceptic Tory group at Westminster, said: ‘This could all happen really quite quickly now.

People have underestimated the significance of the referendum lock. If there is any whiff of handing over powers then there will have to be a referendum - that puts the Prime Minister in quite a strong negotiating position.’

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman last night confirmed that fellow EU leaders were ‘well aware’ of Mr Cameron’s views, and insisted he had no intention of signing any treaty that handed powers to Brussels.

He added: ‘If any power is passed from London to Brussels it will trigger a referendum. The Prime Minister has made it clear he doesn’t intend to agree to anything on those lines.’

Mr Cameron came under further pressure to call a referendum on Europe last night with the creation of a new all-party group on the issue at Westminster.

Tory MP John Baron, who founded the group, said: ‘The case for a referendum is growing by the day.

The EU is constantly evolving, and is very different to the European Economic Community we joined in 1973. Yet, no-one in this country under the age of 55 has had the opportunity to express their view on this signally important matter.

‘There is a very real lack of public trust when people hear politicians making promises about Europe. The three main political parties have failed in this respect. Such a referendum would address this credibility gap.’

In a separate development, campaigners, including former Apprentice star Katie Hopkins and independent MEP Nikki Sinclaire, handed in a petition to Downing Street signed by 100,000 people calling for a referendum on Europe.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2203001/Cameron-secret-referendum-threat-EU-leaders-power-grab-plans-create-federal-Europe.html