Telegraph View: The Government must prevent further erosion of national sovereignty by holding a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.The Conservative Party famously campaigned for a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon, only to back down once Irish voters, at a second attempt, had approved it. Now the Coalition Government, of which the Tories are the dominant partner, has indicated where it would draw the line in future. Under the treaty, qualified majority voting (QMV), whereby changes will need the support of 55 per cent of member states representing at least 65 per cent of the EU population, will become the norm from 2014 onwards. Areas in which unanimity will be retained include tax, foreign policy and defence. The Government has made clear that any further extension of QMV or any future EU treaty would be put to the British people in a referendum.
Many will feel that all this is too little too late to check a newly authoritarian streak in the EU. French and Dutch rejection of the constitution in 2005 was blithely disregarded and the Lisbon treaty, an almost identical document, served up in its place. When the Irish rejected that, the same question was put to them 14 months later. Having backed a referendum on the constitution, the Labour government refused one on the treaty, arguing with shameless casuistry that the two documents were fundamentally different. The "ever closer union" specified in the Treaty of Rome means that the drive to limit the powers of the nation state is the EU's raison d'être. The reaction of members to such encroachments has been lamentably weak.
The MEP Daniel Hannan is campaigning for a referendum on our membership of the EU. The Government is stopping well short of that, saying that it intends to be a "positive participant" in Europe. Given the nature of the union, however, it may soon have to take a lone stand against further erosion of national sovereignty by submitting it to popular vote.
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