Letter: EU to the rescue

Sir: Both representatives of the European Parliament who gave evidence to a House of Lords select committee earlier this year volunteered the opinion that it will be possible to introduce corpus juris under article 280 of the EU Treaty (pp 84, 85, of the Lords' Report), which does not allow for a national veto. The British government does not agree with this interpretation.

At an inter-parliamentary conference called in Brussels last November it was discovered that all our 14 EU partners look with favour on the project. It is therefore highly likely that it will become a formal proposal. When that happens, if there is a dispute between the British and the rest as to the availability or otherwise of a national veto, then under the terms of the treaty, the matter will be out of British hands anyway, for it will go for adjudication to the European Court of Justice.

PETER GARDNER

Chairman, Oxford UK Independence Party