EU poised to commit a great abuse of power.

The Daily Telegraph today has an interesting item, which is linked from here, titled:

EU Treaty: new EU plan 'abuses power', say lawyers

It is quite clear that for a Trety to proceed with less than the full membership of the EU it could not use the means of an EU Treaty, which is why this blog has taken to using the term "Non-EU Treaty" when referring to what is now planned following the early morning meeting of 9th December. May I suggest others adopt this terminology, pending an official name being provided by the planned signatories. The main points of the article are as follows:

In an attempt to overcome the debt crisis by strengthening enforcement of the euro’s fiscal rules, the so-called Euro-Plus group will draw up its own treaty. But documents agreed at yesterday’s summit continue to mention “reinforcement” of existing eurozone rules that would require treaty change, and set out enforcement mechanisms to be policed by the EU’s courts and the European Commission.

“To do this is a 'detournement de pouvoir’ or 'abuse of power’ because it changes rules that were agreed by all 27 EU countries,” says the legal advice. “Moreover, any treaty at less than 27 cannot make use of the community institutions if they changed the character of those institutions, and any use of the institutions has to be agreed by all.” The controversy is expected to swamp the courts with litigation, including challenges from Britain.

Any meeting attended by any official of the EU and representatives of other member states can be attended by a British representative. Any use of any EU Treaty, official, institution or facility must be subject to Britain's agreement! Perhaps they will suggest buying us out?