TONY Blair will today take just three minutes to accept a raft of new European measures — designed to surrender centuries of Britain’s control of its affairs.

The PM will give up at least 26 powerful vetoes and hand Brussels the power to dictate UK law during crunch EU Constitution talks in Greece.

But critics say it is just the start...and by signing the deal Britain will be accepting a “Trojan Horse” of changes.

The ancient Greeks captured the city of Troy by hiding soldiers in a wooden horse and offering it as a “peace gift”.

But once inside the city walls, the Greeks leapt out and took control while their enemies slept. Mr Blair is pretending the treaty is a gift too.
He says it is a tidying up exercise.

But critics say nasties in the small print will emerge later and make us wish we had never signed.

Mr Blair has repeatedly refused demands to give voters a referendum on the final deal — to be agreed over the next year.

But it will mean Britain gives up control over vast areas of law. These include immigration, criminal justice, policing, energy, trade and culture.

Brussels chiefs insist that a new treaty must be agreed to ensure the union can work smoothly when it expands from 15 to 25 members next year.

But Britain will end up losing the right to choose who comes into the country and our border controls will be abolished.

A new public prosecutor with the power to seize suspects in Britain for offences not regarded as a crime here would be appointed.

A new EU foreign minister and an elected President would also be installed.

But the blueprint also hands the EU overall rights to set laws in Britain whenever it chooses.

A new Charter of Fundamental Rights will be incorporated — handing Luxembourg’s European Court of Justice judges the right to make British law.

Shop-floor laws would also be set in Brussels which critics fear could strengthen trade union barons and cripple the booming economy.

State workers would be forced to have their wages dictated by the EU depending on where they live. New “escalator clauses” have also been written in at the last minute.

They mean the EU will be able to take control of key issues, currently under the control of the British government, if they see fit.

Britain’s remaining vetoes would be at risk. Last night Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram said: “Tony Blair is planning to sell Britain out at the European summit.

“He intends to give up national control over asylum, immigration and parts of crime fighting capability. He will not block a European foreign minister who could take our seat at the UN and he will not block a Euro President.

What has he got to hide?

He should give the British people a referendum on his new European blueprint.”

Downing Street last night insisted Mr Blair will tell fellow EU leaders at the summit, being held in Porto Carras, that he will BLOCK the treaty’s demands to seize control of Britain’s tax, defence and foreign policies.

But he will only get around three minutes to make his case.

Number 10 also pledged to fight off a bid to set social and welfare policy in the UK.

But crucially officials admitted the Premier is “pretty happy” with the rest of the 188-page written constitution.

The ceremony today marks the start of a year of “horse-trading” over the blueprint.

The treaty will be signed next June and become law soon after — once the PM has used his vast majority to push it through the
Commons.

Detailed here, are four key areas we are set to lose control over.

TONY Blair says he is an “honest kind of guy”. But can we trust him on the new EU Constitution?

The PM insists there is nothing in the controversial document which marks a final step towards a federal superstate.

Yet it includes transfers of power over almost every aspect of our lives to unelected bureaucrats and judges in Brussels and Strasbourg.

Mr Blair flatly rejects calls for a referendum on the biggest issue facing the nation.

Yet other countries are offering a vote and even the architect of the constitution, French ex-President Giscard d’Estaing, says the issue is too big to be left to politicians.

“Treaties are for governments,” he says. “Constitutions are for people.”

The Prime Minister claims nothing in the constitution will “fundamentally” change the way we are governed.

Yet the document has irreversible implications for our system of law, commerce, immigration, transport, energy stocks and public health.

David Heathcoat-Amory, one of two British MPs on the panel advising Giscard d’Estaing, points out that UK laws on these areas can be repealed or replaced.

But once they are enshrined in a legally-binding constitution, they are set in stone.

We can vote out the MPs in Westminster — but not the unelected European Commission.

The EU will be transformed from a confederation of consenting states into a binding legal entity with all the clout of a nation over its 15 members — soon to be 25.

Our law courts — including Mr Blair’s planned Supreme Court — will be subordinate to the European Court of Justice.

The treaty will incorporate the controversial Charter of Fundamental Rights, with huge implications for workplace law and union power.

Yet Mr Blair promised last year that this would never be written into the constitution.

Indeed, until a couple of years ago, Mr Blair denied there was any plan for an EU constitution at all.

Once work began on it 15 months ago, ministers insisted it was just a “tidying up” of existing treaties.

Yet the final draft includes many NEW powers, some inserted at the last moment, to Downing Street’s fury.

They include a “ratchet clause” which allows the EU to reopen arguments over areas ruled out of bounds — after the document is signed and sealed.

Mr Blair has drawn “red lines” around issues like tax, defence and foreign policy and is likely to win these arguments for the time being.
But the EU never gives up expanding its power — and has those targets in its sights.

Ironically, the opening words of the constitution are a standing rebuke to Tony Blair’s refusal to hold a referendum.

“Reflecting the will of the citizens and states of Europe,” it begins.

And, for Mr Blair it seems, that is where it ends.