mr president as i am sure everyone is aware we now have a new government in the united kingdom which we can call the lib-dem con coalition
in the agreement reached between the conservative party and the liberal democratic party it says that we agree that there shall be no further transfer of sovereignty or powers over the course of the next parliament i
e
to the european union
of course anyone who knows anything about this at all knows that there will not be any more transfers of sovereignty requiring a referendum because this has all been done under the lisbon treaty
so there will be no need to ask the people of britain or of any other country in the europe union it will all happen anyway
however if mr cameron is really genuine about what he is saying then he has a golden opportunity to actually keep to that pledge because as my colleague trevor coleman pointed out a few weeks ago in this chamber the addition of new members to the european parliament means that the lisbon treaty will have to be re-ratified by all the member states
so in britain's case mr cameron now has a golden opportunity either not to re-ratify the treaty or to put it to a referendum of the british people
let us hope he keeps to his word and does that
