Home What's New Speeches & Articles Newsletter - Jul 2008 Biography Diary Contact Information Photo Album Parliamentary Highlights Publications Links MEPs' Transparency   Conservative Party Latest News from Conservatives.com Conservative Party Website
		Letter to the Editor Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday, 19 November 2003 Dear Sir, Mr. J. Bower (letters, 14/11) asks why the Conservative party opposes "a treaty being negotiated by 25 EU nations to make enlargement work". All I can say to Mr. Bower is that he ought to read the document (it's a Constitution, by the way, not a treaty), and he will see that he's been taken in by Brussels propaganda. It is simply not true that the proposed EU constitution is necessary for enlargement. If we had the sort of Europe that the British people voted for in 1975 - a Europe of free trade and co-operation - then I should welcome enlargement. But the Constitution, if we let them get away with it, will create a People's Republic of Europe, in which most key policy areas will be decided centrally by officials that we did not elect and cannot remove. Britain will become little more than an offshore province governed from Brussels. The latest news is that under the Constitution's energy chapter, we are likely to lose control of our North Sea oil, just as we lost control of our North Sea fisheries in 1975. We must not let it happen again. We must demand a referendum on this Constitution. Readers who agree can sign the Conservatives online petition for a referendum at www.putittothepeople.com. Yours faithfully, Roger Helmer MEP