Sir, In the UK much public anxiety about the European Union mistakenly revolves around its supposed intrusive and unbridled strength. On the contrary, the fundamental cause for concern is that the EU is in practice far too weak to protect the interests of its member states (leading article, Nov 4).

Indeed, the EU bureaucracy, for all its bluster, cannot effectively exercise even a small part of the power currently sought by the executive. The contrast with the United States is sharp and instructive, but this weakness cannot be remedied through any Lisbon or other treaty fiat. Power of a federal kind can only be built incrementally, and with the consent and approval of the member states, who will cede actual authority when it is justified by an increase of security and wellbeing, and not otherwise.

Until the EU deserves respect and has earned the right to rule, we will need national governments to order and defend our societies.

In practice this is precisely what is occurring: witness the gulf between the increasingly pragmatic national approaches to energy and climate change, and the unfeasible and counterproductive mess that passes for EU policy on these matters.

Dr John Constable
Director of Policy and Research, The Renewable Energy Foundation

Sir, Time will show the Lisbon treaty to have been one more step in the inexorable progress towards a United States of Europe; each step makes the next easier and more tempting to the federalists. The sceptics must now believe that withdrawal from the EU, whatever the costs, is the only option. A referendum or, better still, an election dominated by this single issue would give a new slant to Dr Johnson’s adage that when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

Ray Long
London SW16

Sir, The Czech constitutional court has ruled that the Lisbon treaty does not conflict with the Czech constitution. One wonders what view our Supreme Court would take if asked to consider the point regarding our constitution.

Richard Hill
Chichester, W Sussex

Sir, With the ratification of the Lisbon treaty, and the establishment of a president for the EU, it is important that, if the office holder is to have real executive power as well as a status comparable to a head of state, he or she should be elected by the whole electorate of the EU and not just by a political elite.

Miland Joshi
Birmingham

Sir, What better endorsement could there be for David Cameron’s pragmatic and sensible approach to Europe? The French are upset. He must be doing something right.

Justin Whiteley
Hampton Hill, Middx

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