Britain was told yesterday that it was part of a new European empire — by the Brussels bureaucrat who would be emperor. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, said that all 27 EU members should be proud of their unique union. “At least we in the Commission are proud of it.”

Conservatives and eurosceptics said that they would use Mr Barroso’s comments to press Gordon Brown for a referendum on the treaty replacing the failed EU constitution — a vote the Prime Minister is refusing to call.

Mr Barroso’s comments came as he announced the European Commission’s wholehearted support for the new EU reform treaty. Asked to describe what the EU was, he said: “We are not the United States of Europe — we are unique in the history of mankind! Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organisation of empires. We have the dimension of empire but there is a difference. Empires were made with force with a centre imposing diktat.

“Now what we have is the first non-imperial empire. We have 27 countries that fully decided to work together and to pool their sovereignty. I believe it is a great construction and we should be proud of it.”

A bluffer's guide to the EU treaty

Our correspondent hacks through the verbiage to explain what happened at the EU summit and what it means

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BACKGROUND

• We must have a referendum on this treaty

• Bleary-eyed Blair claims victory

• Treaty questions and answers

• Now a vote on Europe

• Brown joins drive to stave off EU referendum

Nervous aides to the former Portuguese Prime Minister inquired after his press conference whether this description might feature in British media reports.

Mr Barroso, a law graduate who was backed by Britain to become European Commission President, all but declared himself emperor while argument is raging in Westminster over whether the Government should keep to Tony Blair’s pledge to hold a referendum on the EU constitution.

The new treaty is not a constitution, but does contain many of the same elements such as a powerful EU foreign minister and the transfer of dozens of policy areas to qualified-majority decision-making. A spokesman for Mr Barroso later said: “No one needs to have imperial nightmares.” President Barroso at his press conference on the new EU Reform Treaty referred to a quote by the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk to emphasise that the EU is anything but a superstate. EU member states come together peacefully, democratically and voluntarily and the President would not want it any other way.”

Peter Sloterdijk is a graduate of Munich University, who has published a number of papers, including the 1983 philosophical treatise Critique of Cynical Reason. He is perhaps most famous however for co-hosting a German television show called Das Philosophische Quartett.

Mark Francois, the Shadow Europe Minister, said: “The British public will be surprised to hear that we are now part of an EU empire. For the President of the Commission to say this is quite startling and anyone who thinks that we have been exaggerating in calling for a referendum on a revived constitution only has to look at what Mr Barroso has said to realise the scale of what is now being contemplated.”

Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party, said: “I would like Mr Barroso to come to Britain and repeat those quotes and see what the reaction would be.

“Or maybe he would prefer to visit the Brussels colony of Britain? Whichever he chooses we all know how we would react.”

One observer said: “He had forgotten for a moment he was President of the European Commission and was suddenly Professor Barroso again speaking to his students about his latest thesis.”

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