BRITAIN: British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair has hailed the emerging European Union constitution as "good for Britain and good for Europe", and again rejected opposition calls for a referendum on the issue.
The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats demanded that the final Treaty be put to the people as the Labour government published its White Paper giving its formal response to the draft proposals produced by Ms Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's European Convention.
In a foreword to the White Paper, Mr Blair said the existing text was "not perfect" while expressing confidence that the negotiations between member-states in the upcoming Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) would produce reforms that would promote "the national and patriotic interest" by creating a more effective European Union.
"Let me be clear," declared Mr Blair. "The convention's end product - a draft constitutional treaty for the European Union - is good news for Britain. The convention text spells out that the EU is a union of nation-states and that it only has those powers which governments have chosen to confer upon it. It is not and will not be a federal superstate."
Speaking in the Commons, the Conservative's foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael Ancram, described the government document as "not so much a white paper as a white flag" and insisted other EU states saw the new constitution as "a step change along the route to full political union".
Mr Ancram said the IGC was an "unparalleled chance" for the government to "act on behalf of the British people by fighting integration and resisting the onset of a European state".
"The clear intention of the White Paper is to soften up the British people for the adoption of the constitution and treaty as they stand, in a cynical exercise which shows yet again why they [Labour\] can't be trusted any more," he said.
With a "significant number" of member-states already committed to holding referendums, Mr Ancram asked: "Why is our government so frightened of trusting the people?"
However, Foreign Secretary Mr Jack Straw attempted to turn the argument back on Conservatives, suggesting that analysis of the draft constitution would show it involved less change than the Maastricht Treaty or the Single European Act, both endorsed by the last Conservative government.
Mr Straw told MPs the proposals "do not change the fundamental relationship between the EU and its member-states" and the government had, therefore, decided "that the right place to decide on any outcome of the IGC" was the House of Commons.
As expected, Mr Blair laid down "red lines", signalling that the UK would not accept any proposals removing the power of member-states over their own tax, defence and foreign policies.
Repeating his support for a referendum, Liberal Democrat leader Mr Charles Kennedy said the draft treaty was "a progressive" document. At the same time he condemned the Blair government for a lack of boldness.
"Instead of going out and being bold and persuasive and selling the European project they have tried to suggest this is really a half-hearted matter, crossing the 't's and dotting the 'i's," Mr Kennedy said.
Vote 2004, the campaign for a referendum on the constitution, published an ICM poll suggesting that 82 per cent of Britons think there should be a referendum.