Referendum calls in UK as Brown signs EU Reform Treaty
Demands for a referendum on the European Union Reform Treaty were reignited today after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown signed Britain up to the document in the Portuguese capital.
Mr Brown came under hails of criticism after missing the lavish official signing ceremony in Lisbon, attended by prime ministers and presidents from all 26 other EU states.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was the sole UK representative in the historic Jeronimos Monastery, where big European players like French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel put their names to the Treaty of Lisbon in front of the TV cameras amid warm applause and handshakes.
They then posed for a “family photo” – again without Mr Brown – before riding the tram a few hundred yards to lunch at Lisbon’s National Coach Museum, where all officials were kept out in order to allow the leaders a chance for one-on-one discussions.
By the time Mr Brown arrived, more than three hours after the opening of the signing ceremony, the other leaders had finished their meal and many of them - including Mrs Merkel and Italian PM Romano Prodi – had left.
He signed the Treaty on his own, behind closed doors at the museum, before leaving little more than 15 minutes later for private talks with his Portuguese counterpart Jose Socrates, the current EU President.
As he left Mr Socrates’ official residence following more than an hour of talks, Mr Brown said he wanted to congratulate the Portuguese Prime Minister on a successful six-month presidency of the EU.
Mr Brown said he was looking forward to tomorrow’s EU summit in Brussels, which he said he hoped would focus on the challenges of globalisation and the key foreign policy issues of Iran and Kosovo.
He was this evening flying back to the UK.
Mr Brown this morning made light of his delayed arrival, caused by his appearance before the House of Commons Liaison Committee. He told senior MPs at the hearing: “I think you can see the priority I attach to attending this committee.”
In an interview with The Times (London), he dismissed the “fuss” over him missing the official ceremony, denying that it made him look “marginal” or was designed to avoid bad publicity.
He insisted that the Treaty should mark the end of the EU’s focus on “semi-constitutions”, and it was now time for the organisation to show “global leadership” on the economy, trade and climate change.
“What I’m going to say to Europe is stop looking inwards, stop looking at constitutions or semi-constitutions or institutions for a long time ahead and for the foreseeable future concentrate on the big issues ahead of us,” Mr Brown said. “What I’m going to do is call for Europe to show some global leadership.”
But shadow foreign secretary William Hague accused the PM of leaving Britain with “the worst of all worlds”.
“With a stroke of a pen he has signed away a swathe of powers to the EU, but his sulky rudeness to our European partners means that he has actually managed to lose influence in Brussels,” said Mr Hague.
“This latest blunder is another sign that Gordon Brown is struggling to cope as Prime Minister.”
