Published in the Telegraph, 26 May 2006
Sir, If, by advocating a “population-based veto”, the Conservative MEP Charles Tannock (letter, May 25) means that small EU member states might lose their veto while large ones retain theirs, this will be easier said than done.
To move to this would require unanimous agreement among existing member states, large and small, and the smaller ones cannot be expected readily to accept a downgrading of their status.
More promising would be for a combination of majority voting and opt-outs. Enlargement is turning the EU from a union of states alone into a union of states and citizens, and the next treaty should explicitly recognise this.
Richard Laming, Director, Federal Union, London SE1