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		Letter to the Editor Leicester Mercury - Wednesday, 1 October 2003 Dear Sir, I have some sympathy with the views of K .Somerset (Sept 24th), who points out the limitations to the powers of the European parliament. However, he is on shaky ground when he argues that any powers the European parliament has are based on the authority and consent of national parliaments. This may be true today. It is still possible to argue, just about, that the legitimacy of the EU depends on the treaties and therefore on the consent of member-state governments. But this ignores the new EU constitution, which Tony Blair is determined to ratify without asking the voters in a referendum. Under the Constitution, the legitimacy of the EU project and of EU institutions depends no longer on the consent of the member-states, but on the Constitution itself. A bottom-up organisation depending on the consent of member-states will become a top-down system deriving its legitimacy from the Constitution itself. The Constitution declares the supremacy of EU law over member-state law. In this sense at least, the member-states, including Britain, will cease to be independent, self-governing nations and will become, in effect, provinces in a new polity. This is the Constitution that the government says is "a mere tidying up of the treaties". But the European Commission says that it "fundamentally changes the structure of the Union". For once, the Commission is right, and the Blair government is lying. Yours faithfully, Roger Helmer MEP