letter to the editor from Richard Corbett MEP

13 April 2005

Daily Telegraph

Sir,

I can happily reassure a concerned Mark Steyn that the new EU constitutional treaty will have no impact on the constitutional position of the Queen or her successors (Euro-ruled Britain won't need a king, 12 April 2005).

The treaty would replace the current six-monthly rotating presidency of the European Council with a two-and-a-half-year president. But the president has exactly the same role as now, namely to organise and chair meetings of the Prime Ministers of EU countries. He or she has no executive powers or ceremonial role and is certainly not a head of state.

On the other hand, the treaty also confirms that the EU only has the responsibilities that we, as member countries, choose to confer on it.

Richard Corbett MEP

Labour spokesman on EU constitutional affairs