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From the Telegraph:

Britain could face expulsion from EU under Prodi plan
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
(Filed: 06/12/2002)

Britain could be expelled from the European Union if it refuses to accept a fully-fledged European government with powers to launch military or police actions on British soil, according to a draft constitution unveiled by Brussels yesterday.

The new proposals, secretly drawn up by Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, call for the total abolition of the national veto to prevent policy paralysis after the arrival of 10 new states in 2004.

Utter confusion reigned in Brussels yesterday after Mr Prodi astounded his own top lieutenants by unveiling the plans alongside a separate, less radical text approved by all 20 Commissioners, including Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten.

That document, entitled "Peace, Freedom, Solidarity", was the Commission's formal set of proposals for the Convention on the Future of Europe, which is drafting an EU constitution for an enlarged Europe of 25, 30 or even 35 states.

A federalist wish-list that will alarm Downing Street, it includes an EU foreign secretary operating from the Commission headquarters, a powerful European Parliament with a full say on all EU laws, and a Commission president elected by MEPs.

But the document pales beside the revolutionary 145-page text thrown into the mix by Mr Prodi.

Codenamed "Operation Penelope", it was drafted in total secrecy by a five-man cell under François Lamoureux, the former deputy chief of staff of Jacques Delors, the former Commission president. Mr Patten and Mr Kinnock were not told about it until late this week, and were said to be fuming at the attempt to slip through proposals for a fully-fledged European superstate, ostensibly under the Commission imprimatur, without their assent.

The text, billed as the "Constitution of the European Union", proposes abolishing the national veto in every area of policy including foreign policy, the setting of "European taxes", and future constitutional amendments. The only exception would be the admission of new member states.

A new "Secretary of the European Union" based at the European Commission headquarters would take charge of foreign policy, representing the EU at the United Nations in an attempt to turn the EU into a "world power".

It envisages a military alliance with a mutual defence guarantee along the lines of Nato's Article V, and able to "launch and conduct military operations" beyond its territory.

Brussels should have powers to intervene with force in the domestic affairs of member states in cases of "serious internal disturbances affecting the maintenance of law and order", as long as it was done in a spirit of "solidarity".

The Charter of Fundamental Rights, viewed by the Government as a serious threat to Britain's legal system, should be fully incorporated as a legally-binding text under the jurisdiction of a new "Supreme Court".

Those states "not able to accept the new constitutional system" would face expulsion from the Union under a "special status". The aim is to prevent a repetition of the first Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty, when one state was able to block advances towards greater integration.

The expelled state would be able to negotiate an agreement safeguarding its "existing arrangements" as an EU member, retaining trading privileges as an "associate country", along the lines of Norway. Once a country accepts the new arrangement, it could not leave the EU when it wishes.

A British official dismissed his proposals as preposterous. "It's patently not going to happen. No treaty changes can take place without the unanimous approval of all member states, and none are going to vote for their own expulsion. It's legally impossible."

But "Operation Penelope" has already thought of this. Recalcitrant countries would be "deemed to have left the Union" under an automatic trigger once five-sixths of the EU states agreed to the constitution.

The authors claim this is "in conformity with international law" since the expelled states would be in the position of having "declined to assert" their EU rights.

Mr Prodi said his secret text, which was released on the Commission website last night, was just a "simulation exercise" to help people understand what an EU constitution might look like. It had "no official status".

But EU diplomats suspected that a hard-core group of federalists around Mr Prodi was trying to force the pace. While they are unlikely to win many of their key demands, there are signs that the Convention is moving much further in the federalist direction than Britain had originally predicted.