The Conservative Party website said on 28.9.2006 that the party backed a new ‘Treaty’ to replace the failed EU Constitution (rejected by the voters of France and Holland in referendums in 2005). Anti-EU campaigners argue that there must not be any new treaty’s signed with the EU ever again – except one facilitating the departure of the UK from the EU.

In a report on the Conservative website headlined “Conservatives want simplified treaty not new EU Constitution” it is stated “Conservatives believe that the EU must be simpler, less bureaucratic and more efficient. The (EU) Constitution is not the answer. The EU needs a simplifying treaty in which larger states like the UK get more voting rights in the Council, more MEPs and more Commissioners. Only a 'power rebalance' will make the EU work. We must not waste time on raising the dead (EU) Constitution.”

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on 28.9.2006 “There must be sweeping reforms before any new EU enlargement (beyond 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania join the EU). I think it would be unwise to bring in more member states apart from Romania and Bulgaria, which will be joining us soon, before we have solved the institutional question."

Charles Tannock MEP, the Conservative Foreign Affairs spokesman in the EU ‘Parliament’ commented “The phrase "institutional question" (used by Barroso) is, of course, euro-code for the EU constitution. President Barroso has dismissed the idea of small treaty changes, insisting any further enlargement 'is the time to take a decision on the constitutional treaty.”

Source of above quotes: Conservative Party official website 3.10.2006

* Conservative leader David Cameron signed the one seat EU internet petition at the Conservative Party conference on 3.10.2006. The Conservative Party said he is the first leader of a political party to do so. The petition has one million signatories and calls for an end to the EU ‘Parliament’ meeting at two sites (one in Brussels and the other in Strasberg). David Cameron also launched the new Movement for European Reform at the conference. The pro-EU leader of the UK Conservatives in Brussels, Timothy Kirkhope MP said “David Cameron's endorsement of the campaign is a symbol of how we Conservatives want to reform europe. To be in europe, leading in europe is our aim. Ending the Strasberg circus is a first step on the road to reform.”

The “in europe, reforming europe and leading europe” phrase has often been used by the Conservative Party over the three decades of EU membership but has produced no tangible benefits for the UK which pays a gigantic amount of money into the EU to subsidise less efficient nations – getting back a massive trading deficit with EU nations in return.
[Rep]