New EU
President
Herman van
Rompuy
and
Brussels
chiefs
toasted
victory
as the
Lisbon
Treaty,
which
moves
vast
swathes
of power
from
Westminster,
became
law
across
the EU
at
midnight
on
Monday.
But in
Britain,
angry
anti-EU
critics
declared
that
it
signalled
the end
of our
independence
after
the
latest
massive
surrender
of
sovereignty
to
Brussels.
Campaigners
have
pledged
to fight
on
against
the
emergence
of a
Brussels
superstate.
UK
Independence
Party
Euro MP
Nigel
Farage
said:
“This
day
should
go down
in
history
as
National
Loss of
Independence
Day. We
now live
in
a new
legal
order.
We are
just a
province
of a new
legal
entity
called
Europe.”
UKIP
yesterday
launched
a
national
campaign
for a
referendum
on
whether
Britain
should
quit the
EU. Tory
MP
Douglas
Carswell
said:
“Britain
has
ceased
to be a
sovereign
country.
Shamefully,
the
freedoms
our
forefathers
fought
for have
been
given
away by
the
politicians
at
Westminster.
We need
a
referendum
now.”
Tory
Euro
MP
Daniel
Hannan
said:
“It
is
appalling,
demeaning,
disgraceful
that
such
a
thing
should
have
been
done
without
popular
consent
and
in
the
absence
of
the
referendum
that
all
three
parties
had
promised.”
The
Lisbon
Treaty
abolishes
dozens
of
national
vetoes
over
Brussels
decision-making
and
creates
the
unelected
post
of
President
of
the
Council
of
the
European
Union.
“We
must
make
sure
this
can
never
happen
again
by
changing
the
law
to
make
referendums
compulsory
on
any
new
treaty
that
would
hand
over
areas
of
power
from
Britain
to
the
EU.”
Swedish
Prime
Minister
Fredrik
Reinfeldt,
whose
country
holds
the
rotating
EU
presidency
until
the
end
of
the
year,
said:
“Today
the
EU
is a
force
to
be
reckoned
with,
both
economically
and
politically.
A
new
era
of
European
cooperation
beings
today.”
“Unaccountable,
unelected
EU
politicians
and
judges
have
sweeping
new
powers
over
everything
from
our
criminal
justice
systems
to
asylum
policy.”
