WL HARRISON'S claims about the EU constitution are simply wrong (Letters, April 3). He seems to think that the word constitution implies that the EU is a state - though even sports clubs have "constitutions".

Let's get real here. European law already overrides national law, and has always done so. This is how we won our case against France on their refusal to accept British beef.

The constitution doesn't create any expansion in the EU's field of competence, nor does it alter the fact that the EU is a union of member states which themselves determine its powers and responsibilities.

The European Commission's job will still be to make proposals and carry out what is agreed by each country's ministers. It will never become an all-powerful central government.

The truth is, we simply don't need a referendum here. In Britain, Parliament scrutinises treaties before ratification. That's what has happened with all European treaties since we joined, including the most significant ones by far - the Single European Act and the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam.

Much of this debate is simply a re-run of part of the Conservative Party's deep hostility to Britain's membership of the EU.

Yet people forget that most Tories (including Michael Ancram, David Davis and even Michael Howard) voted against a referendum on Maastricht, although it was a major increase in the EU's field of responsibility - quite unlike the "constitution" before us.

We must resist the Tories' Euro-sceptic opportunistic nonsense.

Coun Paul Blanchard,

Heworth Mews,

York.

Updated: 11:18 Tuesday, April 06, 2004