The current debate in the UK about the revised European treaty and the alleged need for a referendum raises a far more fundamental question: do the people of the UK truly want to be part of an entity that has the sharing of sovereignty and indeed the supremacy of European Union law at its core? If the approach offered by much of the media and political establishment is accurate, other Europeans are more than justified in asking the question.

For most Europeans it is a tragedy to have to ask this because the EU needs Britain at least as much as Britain needs the EU. It is fair to say that of all the larger member states, Britain has been the most consistent supporter of external free trade and a genuinely functioning internal market. This makes it surprising if not perverse to find Britain often in effect undermining the necessary means to achieve desirable ends. These means are the institutions of the EU.