Since taking the reins of the Conservative party, David Cameron has consistently used the Lisbon Treaty issue as a stick with which to beat UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Indeed, in recent weeks, Cameron and other leading Tories have upped the ante.
Tory foreign affairs spokesman William Hague, last week described Brown's refusal to hold a referendum as a betrayal of voter trust which "debases the coinage of politics". As part of the Tories' election campaign, Cameron condemened the prime minister for "flip-flopping", and promised that if the "constitution [Lisbon Treaty] were not in force at the time of the general election, a Conservative government would hold a referendum on it, urge a 'no' vote, and reverse Britain's ratification if successful".
To emphasise the point even further, the Lisbon Treaty is the first issue raised on the Tories' election campaign website for the 2009 elections. They have also launched an online campaign for an Irish-style referendum.
'Cameron doesn't have anything else to talk about,' say critics
Cameron's critics argue that his electoral strategy is designed to attract nationalist sentiment in the UK, while also covering up the fact that the Tories lack a coherent policy platform for the European elections.
"Resuscitating the Lisbon issue amounts to little more than flogging a dead horse," one analyst told EurActiv.
Prominent British Liberal MEP Andrew Duff claimed that Cameron has taken this line because "he doesn't have anything else to talk about".
Duff told EurActiv that the Tory leader is constrained by his party's powerful Eurosceptic wing from elaborating policy plans at the European level. "These elections will expose Cameron as someone whose only focus is on the national," he concluded.
Irish European Affairs Minister Dick Roche delivered an equally critical assessment. Speaking to EurActiv, he said that "these elections should be about contemporary EU issues," and argued that "the EU's critics in certain member states who complain about the democratic deficit are in fact contributing to that deficit by using these European Parliament elections for something other than their real purpose".
A Eurosceptic vote
European elections in the UK are more often than not an outlet for the country's considerable body of Eurosceptic opinion.
In the 2004 elections, the Tories won 27 seats to Labour's 19, while the UK's most strongly pro-EU party, the Liberal Democrats, won as many seats as the UK Independence Party (UKIP), whose goal is to withdraw Britain from the EU.
There has been widespread speculation that the far-right British National Party (BNP) could make gains at this year's elections. Labour party chair Harriet Harman earlier this year warned against the "very real risk" of the party winning more seats, warning mainstream parties that the BNP threat "cannot be ignored".
UKIP, meanwhile, is expected to post losses following their huge success in 2004.
Andrew Duff believes that the UK is experiencing a nationalistic phase in its history, as a result of which "the majority of UK parties are now opposed to the EU".
However, the Liberal MEP believes the multitude of anti-EU voices could, in effect, drown each other out. "The anti-European terrain is very crowded this year," he said, "but voters could be puzzled by the proliferation".
