13/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - During the seminar organised by the security/defence sub-committee of the European Parliament on 11 February on the implications of the Lisbon Treaty on ESDP (EUROPE 9600), the UK Conservative MEP Geoffrey Van Orden criticised the refusal of the British government to hold a referendum on the new Treaty of the EU. Whilst Prime Minister Gordon Brown says that the new treaty no longer bears any relation to the former draft European constitution (and claims that it therefore no longer justifies a British referendum), those taking part in the EP seminars all agreed that the Lisbon Treaty will give a “massive boost” to the EU's ambitions in terms of defence policy, said Mr Van Orden, who spoke out against a “conspiracy of silence in London” on the new treaty. In the view of the British MEP, the new treaty will allow a group of countries to “form an EU army under the new President and Foreign Minister of the EU”. “Defence is now becoming a key policy of the European Union, directly affecting the national sovereignty” of the member states, lamented Mr Van Orden in a press release. (H.B.)