Tories drops EU treaty referendum plans

LONDON (AFP) - Conservatives have dropped plans to call a referendum on the EU's Lisbon Treaty if they take power next year, they said Tuesday after it was signed by the Czech president.

Conservative leader David Cameron, tipped by polls to win general elections due by June, is expected to set out his response Wednesday following the Czech signature, said the party's foreign affairs spokesman William Hague.

"Now that the treaty is going to become European law and is going to enter into force, that means a referendum can no longer prevent the creation of the president of the European Council, the loss of British national vetoes," he said.

"These things will already have happened and a referendum cannot unwind them or prevent them," he added.

Cameron has for months declined to be drawn on what he would do if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all 27 European Union member states, but there has been speculation that he could try to negotiate opt-outs on key policy areas.

The Conservative leader drew criticism last month when it emerged he had written to Czech President Vaclav Klaus stating that the Conservatives would hold a referendum if he took office and the Lisbon Treaty was not yet in force.

Polls indicate such a referendum would result in a No vote in strongly eurosceptic Britain, which is not a member of the eurozone single currency bloc, or of the Schengen open borders area.

The Lisbon Treaty is designed to streamline the running of the bloc, which has almost doubled in size to 27 nations since a swathe of ex-communist countries including the Czech Republic joined in 2004.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, languishing in popularity polls two and a half years after he succeeded Tony Blair, welcomed Klaus's signature as "an important and historic step for all of Europe".

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