'No poll on EU blueprint' - Hain

Hain: Proposals will "tidy up" EU powers

A referendum on a new European Union constitution has been ruled out by the cabinet minister heading the UK team debating the proposals.

Wales Secretary Peter Hain said the blueprint being drawn up by the Convention of the Future of Europe would be handled like previous EU treaties and not put to a poll among UK voters.

He was responding to calls for a referendum on the plans, with one Tory MP saying the new constitution would lead to the EU becoming a state in itself.

The convention is looking at the structures and powers of the EU once it expands to 25 member states.

Among the proposals are plans, backed by the UK, for a powerful new EU president and changes to the way decisions are made, with more majority voting.

But Mr Hain said they did not amount to the "big sovereignty issues" upon which a referendum would be held, such as the decision over UK membership of the euro.

'Nonsense'

He said the plans were "more of a tidying exercise of a tangled web of treaties" which were "difficult to comprehend".

He said what was needed was "a much more straightforward clarified constitutional treaty" in a single document setting out the EU's powers and people's rights.

Giscard D'Estaing heads convention

He said it was "nonsense" to suggest that the constitution would lead to the EU assuming the powers of a state.

The Tories have called for a referendum on the constitution, while polls will be held in other EU states.

But Mr Hain said that where other countries have a tradition of holding referendums, it was right that the UK should address the issue via the parliamentary system.

"We have a different system of democratic accountability and I think you can subject this treaty to line by line examination in the House of Commons and the House of Lords where we have had a long tradition of holding governments accountable."

Mr Hain said that was how previous treaties, including the contentious Maastricht treaty which ushered in the euro, had been dealt with in the UK.

Choice

That, he argued, was "much more significant" than the convention's proposals.

A blueprint from the convention, chaired by former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, will be debated at an EU summit in Greece in June.

EUROPEAN CONVENTION

Chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing

Holding year-long discussions

Aims to simplify treaties

Trying to decide balance of power between Brussels and governments

More about the convention

Tory MP David Heathcoat-Amory, one of the UK Parliament's representatives on the convention, said it was important that a referendum was held to give voters the final say on the plans.

He said the constitution "will endow the EU with all the attributes of a state, all the organs of a state, all the powers of a state.

"I think that is not what the British people want and therefore it is very important that they have the final choice in a referendum."

And calls for a poll have also been backed by Labour MP Graham Allen.

He said: "The constitution without consent is a constitution without right.

"You actually do need to get everyone to buy in to a constitutional settlement."

He said the proposals could "fall on deaf and sceptical ears because our people and our parliament haven't been properly involved".