Daily Telegraph Leader, 8th September 2008

The best way for Britain to belong to Europe

Europe has all but disappeared as a political issue. None of the political parties wants to talk about it - Labour and the Lib Dems because they know that they are at odds with public opinion, the Conservatives because they are terrified of reviving memories of the 1990s. Most voters, if pushed, are vaguely under the impression that the whole thing has gone away. Didn't the French and Dutch electorates kill the European Constitution? And didn't the Irish drive a stake though its heart when it tried to clamber out of its coffin in the ghoulish shape of the Lisbon Treaty?

No. The European Constitution remains very much on the agenda, and an incoming government will have no choice but to face it. Since the Irish "No" vote on June 12, ratification has continued elsewhere. Nicolas Sarkozy, who currently holds the EU presidency, makes no secret of his view that the Irish will have to vote again, this time to come up with the "right" answer.

If his plan is dropped - if, that is, the Irish government runs the numbers and concludes that it can't win a second plebiscite - then the treaty will simply be enacted through parliamentary ratification, executive fiat and judicial activism. Lisbon, in other words, may not be formally ratified; just implemented.

This is the last way many Tories want to begin their administration. They would rather concentrate on the economy and welfare reform, and relegate the EU to a putative second term. But they are unlikely to have that luxury. Twelve months ago, on the eve of the formalisation of the Lisbon Treaty, David Cameron promised: "Today, I will give this cast-iron guarantee: if I become PM, a Conservative government will hold a referendum on any EU treaty that emerges from these negotiations."

Since then, he has watered down that commitment, saying that it will apply only if the treaty has not been ratified by all 27 states. But given the state of public opinion in Ireland, this is a perfectly plausible scenario. In short, we cannot avoid the question of what would happen if all the other countries except Britain - or perhaps Britain and Ireland - wanted to adopt the constitution.

To address that question, The Daily Telegraph is today hosting a conference in association with the think tank Global Vision. We are sketching out how Britain might relate to the rest of the EU as an associate member, within the single market but outside other political structures. Such a dispensation will be supported by, among others, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the constitution's author, who favours giving Britain a "special status". A generation ago, the British people voted, as they thought, to join a common market, not a common polity. There is no dishonour in giving people what they voted for.