INTRODUCTION

The DM has taken the opportunity of ITV's 'EU Decide' referendum in Luton to launch a new leaflet and campaign called Break Free: from the outdated EU.

Featuring a picture on the front of jubilant 'No' campaigners after Ireland's recent Lisbon Treaty referendum, the leaflet leads with the question; What part of 'No' doesn't the EU understand?

The French and Dutch peoples also rejected the "substantially equivalent" EU Constitution in referendums and polls show a large majority of the British people would have too. Had our government and the Liberal Democrats kept their election promises to hold a public vote.

Yet the European Union is still trying to side-step the people's verdict and grab more powers from Europe's elected parliaments.

The Lisbon Treaty and the reaction to the Irish 'No' vote show that EU is stuck in the past and incapable of reform, even when people overwhelmingly reject centralising more decision-making in its undemocratic institutions.

While the world moves on and new challenges confront us, the main focus of the EU political elite remains on how to over-ride public opposition and force the rejected Lisbon Treaty into law.

The Break Free campaign's main theme is that it's time for Europe's leaders to drop the top-down EU state idea and to instead spend their time addressing today's challenges. Rather than planning how to centralise ever more power in Brussels without democratic consent.

With a range of other European organisations such as the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the European Free Trade Assocation (EFTA) and the non-EU Council of Europe able to provide broader and, consequently, far more effective action towards the promotion of trade, peace and cultural exchange on our continent, many are starting to ask what exactly is the point of the expensive and interfering EU?

If the EU cannot deliver, as increasingly seems the case on issues ranging from the environment to peace and security, yet continues to push its centralising agenda regardless of democratic votes, then Europe clearly needs new arrangements that will enable flexible
co-operation but which will also respect democracy and Europe's diversity.

Please join with us and thousands of like-minded others in this new campaign for a fundamental change of direction in the course of European co-operation.

ORDER LEAFLETS

• Click here to order Break Free leaflets, whether just a few to give to family, friends or work-mates - or larger quantities to put through letterboxes in your area.
  

KEY LINKS

• ReferendumList.com: did your MP vote for an EU Constitution/Lisbon Treaty referendum, like they promised you they would at the last election? Click here and enter your postcode into the DM's dedicated website to find out.
  
  
• The Treaty of Lisbon
  17 December 2007