John Boyd looks at the recent agreement by the European Council and its implications for democracy in the UK.

Have no illusions. It has been claimed that the recent EU Council agreed mere amendments to existing EU treaties that require no referendum. This couldn't be further from the truth.

What is actually happening is a slow coup d'etat of nation states and democracy in the EU.

In the run-up to the conference, EU president German Chancellor Angela Merkel devised a strategy to bypass the tricky issue of referendums, which had defeated a proposed new EU constitution in France and the Netherlands.

Germany did so with the full complicity of the Blair government and the European Commission.

Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett spent two hours stonewalling at the Commons European scrutiny committee just days before the EU summit, claiming that no document had been agreed prior to the European Council in Brussels. So, either Downing Street was not keeping the Foreign Office informed or it and Beckett were telling fibs.

Blair went to the conference bearing a set of "red lines." They were a mere distraction.

The eventual agreement, which basically dropped the words "constitution" and "foreign minister," together with a few minor elements of the original text of the rejected EU constitution, will fool few. Temporarily abandoning symbols such as the EU flag, motto and anthem means absolutely nothing.

At the summit, large, established EU states used the extra voting weight handed to them under the qualified majority voting system to force the "mandate" through.

Poland had strong objections to weakening its share of the vote in EU decisions, another key result of the summit.

The Czech delegation let it be known that it regarded the intergovernmental conference as "a fiasco" and confirmed the fears of the eurosceptic leadership around Czech President Vaclav Klaus. One member of the Czech delegation stated: "We tried to support the Poles but, without a partner from one of the larger states, we were powerless."

The results of the conference have profound implications for the future of Britain and the right of nation states to self-determination.

The plain objective of the "amending" treaty that it gave birth to is to give the EU the legal status of a state. If that is allowed to happen, then we will be ruled by an unaccountable centralised government in Brussels. Such a eurofederalist government would have the legal powers to do anything without reference to national governments, parliaments or electorates.

Otherwise, there is no point in making changes to the current set-up.

The strategy is an undemocratic attempt to avoid referendums across the EU, especially given the overwhelming democratic results in France and the Netherlands two years ago.

The coup d'etat still has to run the gauntlet of ratification by 27 member states and, more importantly, mounting opposition across the EU.

If the EU treaty were put in place, then the EU could sign treaties in its own right and change what is, in practice, a constitution without further treaties or ratification.

All democratic forces must join together to demand a fair referendum and then to campaign for a No vote to defend all aspects of democracy and future well-being of the peoples of Britain.

John Boyd is secretary of the Campaign Against Eurofederalism and editor of the Democrat. This article first appeared in the Morning Star