I pointed out in an earlier post that Cameron's pledge to let the British people have a referendum before any new powers are shifted to Brussels is meaningless. What the Tory leader has either overlooked, or more likely, is hoping no one will notice, is that

the Lisbon Treaty is a new kind of monster, a 'self-amending' treaty:

Now that Lisbon is law, the European Council can shift new powers to the European institutions without a new treaty or treaty amendment being required. Powers can shift without there being any treaty on which to hold a referendum.

The power lies in eight highly-technical sections of Article 48 of Lisbon (known to the wonks as TEU, but that is not relevant just at the moment), but it comes down to this: Lisbon allows the council to move things that are currently done by unanimous voting to qualified majority voting -- in other words, Britain loses its veto, and without the need for a treaty amendment.

Just to confirm that is how things are, earlier today I asked Damian Chalmers, professor of European Union Law at the London School of Economics and head of the European Institute, to answer a couple of questions about Article 48, known as the passerelle clause.

One question I put to the professor was this:
David Cameron's undertaking is that, under a Conservative government, no new powers will be passed to Brussels in any new treaty without a referendum. It seems to me that under Lisbon new powers can pass to the EU institutions without a new treaty. Is that right?

Answer from the professor: 'You are right.'

Full article HERE

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