Conservative Lord David Howell wrote to the Financial Times yesterday to say that, although he likes the EU in its current incarnation - he describes it as "a subtle balance between the obvious efficiencies of collective action and the equally obvious imperatives of national identity and belonging", and amen to that - he has serious problems with the new constitution, which he thinks inflicts all kinds of damage on our sovereignty, independence, budget, democracy and so on.

This is a rather fine line to try to tread - especially when you consider the very straightforward fact, highlighted by the BBC just the other day, that vast amounts of the new treaty are simply lifted from the current treaties. "If you complain about the constitution, as you are entitled to, you also have to complain about the Treaty of Rome".

But anyway, Lord Howell makes a much more fundamental mistake. Underpinning virtually every aspect of his lengthy tirade against the new constitution is one all-pervading misconstruction.

He sets out to describe a sinister creature which he calls “the Union”. In his mind, this monster can “assume whatever powers it likes”, has “the final word” on our laws, and will “impose a new and higher legal order” on our country. He conjures up the vivid image of twenty-five valiant but helpless nation states, each struggling to maintain independence against the menacing domination of a sinister alien will.

This is, of course, utter hogwash. “The Union” is nothing more than the co-operative framework that we ourselves have agreed with our European neighbours. Its decisions are taken by member governments, double-checked by the directly-elected European Parliament. They are not foist upon us by some higher authority, least of all the European Commission, which has the power only to make proposals.

And the scope of the Union’s competence is determined entirely by member governments themselves. The new constitution enshrines the ‘principle of conferral’ as a fundamental tenet, meaning the EU has no powers at all except those conferred on it by its member states. This point is made extraordinarily clearly at the very
beginning of the constitution (Article I-11). But Lord Howell has “studied every draft” – so he must know all this. Whence the confusion?

We have nothing to fear from the new constitution, in whose drafting Britain did, after all, play a decisive role. Nor have our European neighbours. What Lord Howell calls the “subtle balance” of Europe’s evolution so far need never be upset – because we remain firmly at the tiller.