Brown to miss EU treaty signing ceremony

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will go to Lisbon to sign the EU’s new treaty on Thursday (13 December) but he will arrive too late to attend the official signing ceremony, his spokesperson said in what appears like a compromise to fend off mounting criticism from eurosceptics at home.

The prime minister will go to Lisbon, Brown’s spokesman told reporters on 11 December. “But, because of the timing of the liaison committee, he will be unable to make it for the actual signing ceremony,” he added. 

Brown was originally billed to attend the influential House of Commons liaison committee at 10am on 13 December and has now managed to find an agreement with the committee to move the session forward, in order to arrive to Portugal as soon as possible. 

Instead of Brown, foreign secretary David Milliband will be present during the official signing at noon at Lisbon’s historic Jeronimos Monastery, Downing Street said. The prime minister is then expected to attend some of the lunch with other European leaders and sign the treaty during the course of the day. 

A Downing Street spokesman played down the importance of the PM’s presence at the ceremony, saying it was “not a particularly significant issue”, referring to previous EU treaties having been signed by foreign secretaries on behalf of the UK. 

However, speculation had been rife in the British media that the PM wanted to avoid the ceremony due to public hostility in the UK over the treaty’s adoption. 

Indeed, while the Labour Party had originally promised a referendum on the previous ‘EU Constitution’, it now says the ‘Reform Treaty’ will not transfer significant powers to Brussels and does not require public consultation – something deeply contested by the Conservative opposition. 

The prime minister’s determination to give evidence to the liaison committee – which brings together the chairmen of 31 Commons committees and some of UK parliament’s most senior backbenchers – means that he will be absent from the official “family photo” of the heads of government, his spokesperson confirmed. 

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