A New EU treaty? I See Trouble Ahead

So, Angela Merkel says a new European Union bailout fund would require changes to existing EU treaties.

Now, I might be getting a bit excitable here, but I think this could be cause serious headaches for both Labour and Conservatives alike.

Start with the technical stuff. The reason Mrs Merkel is talking about treaty change is that the Treaty on the European Union (Maastricht, to you and me) both allows the creation of a single European currency, and forbids one member-state bailing out another. So if the EU is create its own European Monetary Fund to save Greece (and whichever member goes bad after Greece) then the treaty must change. So far, so good.

But hang on: when the Lisbon Treaty was ratified by the UK (yes, without a referendum), the Prime Minister promised that there would be no more institutional changes in Europe for up to a decade.

He made the pledge several times, including in the Commons.'

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