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Blair offers referendum on EU's proposed constitution

British Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks to health-care professionals during a breakfast meeting at Downing Street yesterday. He later told parliament that he is willing to hold a referendum on the proposed EU constitution. PHOTO: AFP

British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday confirmed that he is ready to hold a referendum on an EU constitution but signalled it would not happen for a year or more, probably after the next general election.

"Let the issue be put. Let the battle be joined," Blair told mem-bers of parliament.

He said the electorate should be asked for their opinion "when all our questions have been answered, when all the details are known, when the legislation has been finally tempered and scrutinized ... and when parliament has debated and decided."

Talks on the EU constitution collapsed at an EU summit last December. But changes of government in Spain and Poland -- two of the major objectors -- have helped revive negotiations.

A number of EU member states plan to hold public votes if an EU constitution is signed and sealed at a summit in June, as seems increasingly likely. A "No" vote in any one of them would hold up, or possibly even scupper the charter.

Officials said that even if a deal were struck, parliamentary scrutiny would not start until late this year and would take several months. Blair is expected to call a general election in or around May next year.

He said he would sign up to a constitution provided it respected Britain's "red lines." He has pledged to keep unilateral British control of areas like taxation, defense and foreign policy.

"Provided the treaty embodies the essential British positions we shall agree to it," he said.

Blair said he would use a referendum campaign to challenge EU myths put about by his Conservative opponents and Britain's eurosceptic media.

It was time for Britain to decide if it wanted be a "leading partner" of Europe or relegated to its margins.

"Let the eurosceptics whose true agenda we will expose, make their case. Let those of us who believe in Britain in Europe ... make ours," he said.

Until now, he has said the constitution posed no threat to British control of vital policy areas and therefore required no public vote.

With polls showing sceptical Britons could well reject a charter, likely to be agreed by EU leaders in June, the pro-European Blair is taking a big gamble. But pressure has intensified to give the public a say.

"I think this is indeed a government on the run," Conservative Party leader Michael Howard said.

He, whose party opposes any constitution as an attack on British sovereignty, said a U-turn would further dent Blair's trust among the public, which has slumped over war in Iraq.

"He has been declaring to the whole world that we are not going to have a referendum, so people are going to wonder to what extent they can trust him when he says anything else," Howard said.

Blair opting for a referendum will increase pressure on other major EU countries to follow suit.
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