Brussels, 07/01/2002 (Agence Europe) - The British Labour MEP Richard Corbett, Spokesman for the Labour Movement for Europe at the EP, explains to fellow British citizens (concentrating on Eurosceptics) why Europe is the right choice in a brochure called "Combating mythology and changing reality: The debate on the future of Europe". To people who rail against the European super state that they fear federalists want to construct, Mr Corbett answers that "for most of our continental colleagues, federalism does not mean centralism. It simply means different levels of governance… Rather than divide on the vocabulary of European integration, we should unite on the substantial changes needed to make our Union function better and ensure that it is efficient, democratic, transparent and accountable". "We are not creating a centralised super state, and we should stop giving credibility to that particular Eurosceptic myth", he adds, noting that "the EU is decentralised" (only 3% of public expenditure is through the European budget and the European Commission has a smaller staff than most average-sized cities (Mr Corbett gives the example of Leeds)). On the UK's role in the EU, Mr Corbett says to those who "still say that Britain can never be truly in the heart of Europe" that the UK is now "at the forefront of debates on the way Europe is going and on the policies it needs for the future" (mentioning the Lisbon process, defence policy, enlargement, Agenda 2000 and the future of the EU's budget). Against this background "the debate on the so-called hard-core or "avant-garde" is misplaced" since "only in a handful of policy areas are there a few Member States that do not, or not yet, fully participate, and the identify of these states varies according to the issue. There is no case for a single "hard-core", but for a degree of flexibility, in those few and limited cases where it is necessary." The brochure concentrates on the future of Europe but does not mention the controversy of whether Britain should be in the euro. (Contact: Richard Corbett, European Parliament, rue Wiertz, Brussels 1047. E-mail: rcorbett@europarl.eu.int.)