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		Letter to the Editor Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday, 7 January 2004 Dear Sir, Peter Valentine's letter on the EU Constitution (Dec 20th) crosses the line from misleading to downright false. He must be betting we haven't read the wretched document. Well sorry, Peter. I have. Several times. It is just not true that the Constitution "strengthens the powers of national parliaments". He is referring to Para 6 of the "Subsidiarity" Chapter, which creates a cumbersome mechanism to let national parliaments register concern about a new EU proposal. But there is absolutely no obligation on Brussels to take a scrap of notice. On the other hand the draft Constitution hands control of huge areas of policy from member-states to Brussels, including Justice & Home Affairs, economic, employment and social policy, immigration and asylum, transport and energy (including North Sea oil and gas). He says "The EU consists of sovereign states, each of which has a veto". But the whole point of the Constitution is to remove the veto in at least 30 areas, and the draft includes the notorious "passerelle" clause (Article 24.4) which allows the progressive removal of the few remaining vetoes - with no say for national parliaments. It is a cruel deceit to pretend that member-states would remain "sovereign" when most of their laws were made by foreign institutions over which they have no control and little influence. Valentine claims that we gain £25 bn a year from EU membership, quoting unnamed "economists". I have been engaged in the debate for many years, and I have never heard this estimate. But I have seen many authoritative estimates, ranging from the Institute of Directors (IoD) in London to the Trade Commission of the US Congress in Washington, who estimate that the economic effect is neutral to negative. Indeed the IoD report, by independent accountants, estimated that membership costs the UK a net £15 to £25 bn a year. Ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont has said he can identify no economic benefit for the UK which unequivocally arises from our EU membership. But Valentine, perhaps inadvertently, is right on his last point. He says that the Constitution "states clearly that the sovereign states give power to the EU". So it does. And the EU never gives it back. Yours faithfully, Roger Helmer MEP